Jordi García del Moral did not plan on playing this week in theGecko Tour. The tough blow of having fallen out of the European Tour Qualifying School in the second half was hard enough to stomach and he needed some time to digest. He hung up his clubs in November and didn’t take them down again until a week ago. It was his first contact.
The objective was to go back to competing within a week. However, he had great vibes. Nobody knows themselves better than a golfer and he felt there was no reason not to hit the course sooner. Additionally, this Sunday he got bad news which motivated him even more to get back into it, starting from the 1st hole. His grandmother Rosa (Rose) passed away in Castellón, and the snowfall that came down last weekend throughout the whole Eastern coast of Spain kept him from being able to travel to say his last goodbye. “It’s okay son, these things happen. Play in the tournament and dedicate it to your grandmother”. That was his mother’s blessing. That was all he needed.
García del Moral, two days and 39 holes later, dedicated the win to her. A win through Rose-colored glasses. Jordi won the Gecko Tour tournament held on the Paraíso Golf Club course. Exciting victory emotionally as well as professionally. The Spanish golfer beat out his component on the third hole of the tiebreak with Irish golferTommy O’Driscoll and German golfer Finn Fleer after tying with a total of 132 shots, ten under par. “To be honest I sort of stumbled upon the win. It’s true I could have won on the 72nd hole. I had a putt for birdie from two meters away and I got tied up completely. Afterward I also had a putt for from four meters away on the first hole of the playoff for the win. It was downhill and I saw it going in the hole, but it slipped out. However, on the second hole of the tiebreak it was Fleer who had the putt from four meters away for the win, and on the last one I was able to use both my components’ errors as leverage. O’Driscoll had problems and Fleer made a 3-putt for par from fifty centimeters away. It was an uphill putt, really fast and it escaped out from under his fingertips”, explains García del Moral, winner of the prestigious Gecko, who won the order of merit two years ago.
The victory pushed Jordi to be optimistic again. He needed it. “After the School I was really down. I got bumped out after the only bad round of the year, the second of the Saler. It was tough and I was left a bit disoriented about what to do, to continue, not to continue…thinking about it a lot. This win really boosted my morale, it is pushing me to keep going and helps to prove to myself that I’m doing things well. It’s hard to win in general, anywhere. We had to shoot ten under par to go into the playoffs. Everyone has a really high level, Jordi affirms.
García del Moral will continue to play golf. That’s what his game is telling him. However, he will coordinate competitions with the Master in Maintenance of sporting greens that he’s currently doing in Malaga. He already did one in course management. Playing golf and studying at the same time. He’s nonstop. Meanwhile, he’ll play a few tournaments in the Gecko, such as this coming Thursday and Friday on the New Course at Atayala, the Gambito and anything he can in the Alps and the Challenge.
The Gecko tournament at Paraíso was extremely demanding. In addition to needing to get in the double digits to win, fourth place finished with eight under par with a tie between five golfers: Marcos Pastor, Sam Connor, Adam Sagar, Rod Bastard and leader of the order of merit, Andreas Andersson. The big leagues in this Gecko.
