His dream is finally a reality! Angel Hidalgo has won the ACCIONA Open de España presented by Madrid. His first victory on the DP World Tour comes after a nail-biting final round in which he managed to hold off none other than Jon Rahm, a three-time champion and hot favourite for the title, making his achievement even more commendable.
It was certainly no walk in the park, but if anyone knew that Sunday would not be simple it was Angel Hidalgo. The Spaniard found himself in a situation today unlike anything he had experienced before, however, he immediately proved he has what it takes to handle the pressure when things started to go awry from the start.
The Andalusian bogeyed the first hole by missing a very short putt before finding the sand with his second tee shot and it looked like it could be an anticlimactic day for him. But if there is one thing Hidalgo has it is grit and courage. He bounced back with an incredible sandy birdie, producing one of the shots of the tournament from the fairway bunker.
With David Puig snapping at his heels, he failed to make the most of the par-5 4th hole and followed it with bogeys at 5 and 6. The Andalusian was now facing his most difficult moment of the tournament. But Angel Hidalgo, much like his beloved Real Madrid, can never be written off. He holed a solid par putt on the 7th and his now-recognisable fist pump came out for the first time today. The adrenaline seemed to kick in and he closed out the front nine with birdies on the 8th and 9th.
One thing Hidalgo’s golf is never short of is excitement and the home fans had to endure another roller-coaster of a round today. You just never know when he might produce a magical up-and-down that Seve Ballesteros himself would have been proud of.
During the first few holes of the back nine he was able to relax and produce some stress-free pars while his playing partners were looking somewhat wayward. On the 13th and 14th, the Marbella native managed to pull two shots clear of Rahm and Puig. He finally had one hand on the coveted trophy.
The Spaniard even seemed to be getting the rub of the green on the 15th, when his errant tee-shot took something of a ‘member’s bounce’. It was starting to look inevitable that he would finally be entering the winners’ circle. Over that stretch of holes, anyone might have thought he was the one that had 10 wins on the DP World Tour, rather than Rahm.
As if he had been playing under this kind of intense pressure his entire life, he made two solid up-and-downs on 16 and 17, the second of which was particularly impressive, with a chip from the back of the green leaving him a kick-in par. On the 18th, after a superb birdie from Rahm on the penultimate hole, and with the Andalusian now hanging on to a one-shot lead, both players found the rough near the green from the tee. It was a dream scenario for the Spanish fans, with two of their own scrapping it out before the packed grandstands on the final hole. This was Hollywood-movie stuff.
Both Spaniards played similar chips, each leaving themselves a few feet for birdie. One thing was clear, if Hidalgo holed his, the title would be going to Andalusia. But the Barrika native was not about to make things easy for him and he confidently rolled his into the middle of the cup, piling the pressure onto his adversary, who was now faced with the most important putt of his life. Just to make for an even more incredible script… he missed. One poor stroke, undoubtedly caused by nerves, and the tournament would now be decided in a playoff.
There, the tension inside the ropes was matched only by the party atmosphere in the stands, with thousands of home fans trying to lift the spirits of Hidalgo by chanting his name. Back on the tee, the Andalusian played first and hit his best drive of the week onto the front of the green, piling the pressure on Rahm. The Basque, for his part, ended up in the same place he had found on the 72nd hole, and after another good chip and a two-metre putt, he repeated his birdie. Once again, Hidalgo was under the hammer. This time though, he managed to hole the short birdie putt he had left himself after a solid second. The two warriors then returned to the tee for another playoff hole, which would be their last.
Hidalgo’s drive, not without a small slice of luck, left him with a simple bump-and-run, while that of Rahm missed its target left. This time the Basque’s shot failed to check and rolled into the rough behind the flag. Hidalgo, however, caressed his ball in close and left himself a simple birdie putt that gave him the title after the three-time champion had failed to sink his second chip. It was an astonishing finish. Jon Rahm embraced the new champion, who was showered in champagne by his friends on the 18th green.
