It was August 13, 2016, a Saturday to be more precise. Alejandro Aguilera, Raspu to his friends, was turning Muirfield upside down. The sanctuary. He achieved two victories in the quarter and semi-finals and made it to the grand final of the British Boys. He was 16 years old and in Spain, very prone to it, we were already speculating about what the ceiling of this friendly and very skilled player from Madrid would be. He really didn’t have one. Interestingly, that same week, Rafa Cabrera Bello and Sergio García were fighting for medals at the Rio Games and Jon Rahm was battling it out at the John Deere, one of his first tournaments on the PGA Tour. Aguilera was aiming at them, to be one of the chosen ones…
However, there is nothing more inscrutable than the paths in golf. Seven years and four months later, Aguilera has turned professional, much later than he imagined that glorious August afternoon. “I’m not going to lie. My goal was different in those days. You see yourself up there and what I wanted was to become a Jon Rahm, study in the United States, turn professional and play on the PGA Tour. You see my generation mates, Puig, Rousaud or Chacarra and inevitably you think what has happened here, what have I done wrong. You never know. There is no single, simple answer. If only it were that easy. It’s the sum of many factors, a combination of things. It’s clear that five years ago I didn’t expect to be in this situation, but the good thing is that you can get there in many ways, I’m very young (23 years old) and I have all the enthusiasm in the world and a little more. I know I can achieve it,” he explains in an interesting chat with Ten Golf.
There is no greater cliché than the phrase life can take many turns. But tell that to Alejandro. Just two months ago he wasn’t even sure if he was going to turn professional. In fact, he was more on the no side. Yes, the quality has always been there, he was still shooting very low rounds, like that majestic 62 in the first round of the European Championship, but he didn’t feel the necessary consistency to face such a tough path as professional golf. “It’s already difficult being very good at the game and confident, let alone turning pro with doubts. There was something in my swing that didn’t fit, that was failing and I was clear that if I didn’t solve it I wasn’t going to turn pro,” says this diligent Business Analytics student who has just a few days left to proudly display his expert title in big data applied to business.
Interestingly, the beginning of the solution to his golf problems was in the data. The alarm was raised by the trackman, well interpreted by Miguel Ángel Duque. “My numbers in the face to path were very inconsistent. That’s how we found the diagnosis. The face to path is how the clubface arrives at the ball and in my case it was a bit chaotic. You have to get close to 0.0, although anything between zero and plus-minus two is good. In my case there was everything. It was something that was escaping me and now we have detected it. I have to thank all those who have helped me in this process, from Javier del Carmen to Juan Ochoa and of course my coach Ismael del Castillo or Duque. It was the critical point. Either I fixed that or I didn’t turn pro,” he explains emphatically.
The process, however, has not ended. Quite the contrary. It has only just begun. “If only it were as simple as pressing a button and fixing it. Not at all. We have done a very difficult part. We have found the way, but now there is a lot of work ahead. My problem was that at the top of my backswing, just before starting the downswing, I opened the clubface and then had to correct it to try to arrive square at the ball. It’s about neutralising that open club. The diagnosis has been a giant step, but there are no magic formulas. Now it’s time to work on the course, hit many balls and do repetitions. The most important thing is that I have a lot of enthusiasm. I understand it and I see it,” he points out with exquisite maturity. It’s early, but the results are starting to show with rounds of four and five under on training days. Now he is eager to test it in competition. When you have to count them.
Raspu went to study in the United States in 2019. There he lived another roller coaster. He entered TCU, Texas Christian University. He quickly stood out. He quickly made a place for himself in the team, led the first qualifiers and had good performances in his first tournaments. The experience went from more to less. Everything came together. His game started to drop, the coach didn’t give him the confidence he needed at that time and, in addition, a lover of physics and astrophysics like him, was not studying what he wanted, precisely on advice from the golf team. The last straw was covid in 2020. He returned to Spain and, although it was not initially in the plans, he decided not to return to the United States. He stayed in Madrid and began to combine golf with studies at the Francisco de Vitoria. He regained his game and his joy, two aspects that are closely linked in his life.
Interestingly, in his first year at TCU he coincided with Hayden Springer, who was in his last year. Springer just got his PGA Tour card through the school a week ago. Another extra incentive. “Of course it’s inspiring. We had a very good relationship. He’s a very calm guy and a good person. I’m very happy for him and for his story, with the tragic death of his little daughter. In that university year I remember he went from less to more. At first he struggled to get into the team to play the tournaments, but he ended the season spectacularly. In fact, he won the conference tournament fighting for the victory with Viktor Hovland and Matthew Wolff, watch out. He’s a lovely person, very tidy, very Texan and as for his golf I would say the best by far is the putt… Super putter. I would also highlight that he is very calm, what they call an Iceman in America,” he points out.
Who knows if in the not too distant future they end up coinciding again fighting for victories on the PGA Tour. It’s Aguilera’s aspiration, his desire and his dream, but always with his feet on the ground, knowing that there is a lot of work to put on the way. In 2024 he will try to play as much as he can and take advantage of the opportunities that appear with the final goal set on the next European Circuit school. From 0.0 to infinity.
