Speaking of the title, the Englishman seems to particularly appreciate the Iberian Peninsula, he who had so far only lifted one trophy on the European circuit. It was in 2010 on the Portuguese island of Madeira. A real rebirth for a player who, in recent months, laboriously passed one in two cut. Thanks to a last blank card of any bogey and a total score of -10, the native of Chertsey, 296th in the world, in the final four moves ahead of a quartet made up of two Ryder Cup players (Miguel Angel Jimenez and Francesco Molinari), d 'a young Argentine hope (Emiliano Grillo) and our national Edouard Espana.

At 25, the Bordelais has a little game and an extremely solid putting, like this string of a good ten meters on hole n ° 3 to save the par during the last lap. But Espana was also consistent in driving with a much lower trajectory than average. This can be useful when the wind suddenly picks up, as was the case on Sunday afternoon in Catalonia. He even had the luxury of missing out on the eagle at hole 18, a par 5, which would have secured him second place on the podium alone. Edouard should however easily recover, he who signs on the course of El Prat the best result of his young career. Second in Spain, along with Miguel Angel Jimenez, we have known more infamous….

The man with the ponytail and the full belly, defending champion, once again made his many supporters shiver. You really had to witness his almost theatrical arrival, like a bullfighter in the arena, when he appeared at the tee. The previous games had until then been greeted by a handful of spectators, applauding timidly and mechanically at the announcement of each player. But this time, several hundred people were waiting and cheering on Miguel Angel, the port still so proud. Laid-back, the Spaniard even took out his cell phone and photographed the audience in panoramic mode, causing general hilarity. Before launching, bravache: "You see, now I switch off and I put my cell phone away, eh!" New laughter from the audience, who will no doubt have understood the lesson.
But after the "olé, olé, olé" of the crowd, it is mostly "ouch, ouch, ouch" that Jimenez was going to hear. In question a first drive in draw, hooked limit, which ended in the bunker on the left.

There were at least as many people to attend, a few minutes later, the first blow of the other darling of the public: Sergio Garcia. Another star, another style. Much more tense than his elder, the former world No. 1, head down, even asked the public not to take photos, in a somewhat pinched tone. We also thought we were going back more than ten years, when Sergio seemed to be looking for the right grip for nearly a minute before cocking his drive. Another style but this time same result as with Miguel, since the ball immediately turned. to the left towards the bunker. The star, who had started a fantastic return to the leaderboard the day before by signing the best card of the day, will end the tournament in a disappointing (by his standards) 22nd place. A leaderboard top on which we could read, almost in succession, the names of Kiefer, Edberg, Carlsson or even Gonzalez. For a bit, it looked like a tennis tournament from the 90s. It seems that in this game, the Spaniards are doing quite well either ...

Frank Crudo