El South African Open takes place this week at the Stellenbosch Golf Club course, in the province of Western Cape. It is the second time this course hosts this legendary event, which held its first edition in 1903. The other occasion Stellenbosch hosted was in 1999, the tournament was already part of the DP World Tour calendar, and we had a Spaniard teeing off in the final group on Sunday. What happened that day is a story to tell the grandchildren every Christmas.
The protagonist of the story is Nacho Garrido. He was 26 years old at the time. The Madrid native was going through one of the best moments of his career. He had just played all four Majors for the first time in 1998. He was playing very well. He posted rounds of 70, 69, and 69 strokes and was in second place, just one shot behind German Sven Struver. “I remember that on the third day I played with South African David Frost and he congratulated me. He said, you’re playing well, good luck tomorrow,” he tells Ten Golf.
He shot 81 on Sunday and finished in 34th place. What happened that day seems like science fiction. “I had an English caddie. I’m not going to name names to avoid pointing fingers or causing trouble after so many years. I had arranged to meet him an hour and a half before teeing off on Sunday. The usual. The same routine as always. When I arrived, he wasn’t there. Strange. Well, no problem. He must be running late. I started warming up, hit some balls, and he still didn’t show up. Half an hour before teeing off and still no sign. There were no mobile phones back then, but we tried to locate him in every way possible and nothing,” Nacho explains.
As you can imagine, the situation is not ideal when you’re about to play for victory in a golf tournament. “I don’t want it to sound like an excuse because I have the responsibility to not let it affect me. Surely with time, I would have handled it differently, but at that moment it affected me. The routine was no longer the same because, among other things, I had to find a caddie to carry my bag. I don’t remember who they found for me. I imagine someone from the club. In the end, I started the round without my usual caddie and half in shock, thinking how could this happen to me. I insist it was a mistake on my part, but I didn’t have the experience back then. It was the first time something like this happened to me. It’s one thing if he doesn’t show up when I’m in 42nd place, but teeing off in the final group threw me off,” he admits honestly.
Let’s say it wasn’t the best possible preparation for the round, more focused on whether his caddie would show up and looking for an explanation. The caddie didn’t appear, and Nacho, of course, went out to play. “I’m not going to deny that I was unfocused,” he assures. His start to the round was revealing. He made a double bogey on the 1st, a bogey on the 2nd, and a double bogey on the 4th. In other words, he was +5 after four holes. The tournament was practically lost, but don’t go away because the story still has a plot twist…
It turns out the caddie showed up on the 6th hole. “It probably would have been better if he hadn’t come, I think. Sooner or later, I would have calmed down and focused on golf. I’m not saying I would have won, but at least I would have defended myself better. When I saw him, I wasn’t sure what to do, to be honest.” The caddie apologised for the delay without giving much more explanation and asked Nacho what he wanted him to do. “Should I stay or go?” he asked. “I couldn’t think of anything else to say but, well, you’ve already saved yourself 6 holes of work, so I think it would be good if you did the rest, don’t you think? I thought: well, I’ll always do better with my caddie,” he explains.
In hindsight, Garrido believes it wasn’t the best decision. “The situation that arose was very strange, and I obviously didn’t know how to handle it. It’s nobody’s fault, I should have managed it better, but it affected me, and despite always being someone who didn’t let results affect my mood. I learned to be that way. I could play better or worse, but I was always calm because I had given it my all,” he states.
The story had a final episode in the locker room after the round. “Ten minutes after finishing, we were packing up the bag, and I was quite calm. As I said, I’ve always been like that, trying not to let the result affect me. However, the caddie came up to me and said: ‘hey, it can’t be that it doesn’t affect you, damn it, you go out there to win and shoot 80.’ And I remember responding: I don’t think you have much idea of what it’s like to compete under pressure, precisely to perform you must try not to let it affect you. Funny enough, he ended up scolding me. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back on a crazy day to forget. By the way, Nacho decided to move on and kept him on the bag. A few months later, it was the caddie who left the Madrid native. Surreal.
Nacho recalls another story from that final round. It happened on the 18th, a not very long hole that doglegged slightly to the left with a river crossing just in front of the green. Struver was tied with David Frost for the lead. The South African had already finished. He needed a par to go into a playoff and a birdie to win. However, he made a double bogey by going into the water. Pressure? “Anyone looking at his scorecard would think so, but the reality is he was very unlucky. He hit a textbook drive to the centre of the fairway, and the ball ended up in a divot that was also filled with sand. It was half-buried. Very unlucky. He had a wedge in hand, but he couldn’t make good contact, and it went into the water. You can’t imagine the bad luck,” Garrido recalls.
As for the course, 27 years have passed, but Nacho remembers it “was a beautiful place, in a vineyard area, with tall trees. It was a traditional course, with doglegs, some semi-blind shots… It had its personality. I think the front nine were quite different from the back nine, but over time it may have changed a bit, even the order of the holes,” he notes.
This is the adventure of that day in Stellenbosch when Nacho Garrido went out to play in the final group of the South African Open. We hope a Spaniard repeats on Sunday, teeing off in the last tee time of the day, although we hope their day is a bit calmer.
