Twelve months ago, Joel Girrbach (-7) stepped onto the 12th tee on Sunday at Real Club de Campo Villa de Madrid tied at the top of the leaderboard, having wiped out Marco Penge’s four-shot lead in the final round. The Swiss was on the verge of challenging for the first victory of his DP World Tour career in the final group at one of the most imposing venues on the calendar. He ultimately finished one shot outside the playoff. It remains his best result on the European Tour.
Twelve months later, he is back in the spotlight at the Open de España presented by Madrid. Girrbach reached the clubhouse at -7 through 36 holes and as the provisional tournament leader. On Friday, he carded a five-under-par 66, matching the best score so far this week.
Clearly there’s something about this course that particularly suits his game. Real Club de Campo isn’t a particularly long course. It demands accuracy from the tee, intelligence to find the fairways and a deft touch around the greens. Girrbach is garnering producing exceptional results in all three areas. On Thursday, he managed to find more than 60% of the fairways on a day when the tournament average was just over 40%.
On Friday, however, it was his irons that impressed the most. The Swiss player put on a golfing masterclass between the 4th and 8th holes, stringing together five consecutive birdies. The accuracy of his irons is reflected in the fact that none of those five birdies came from a putt longer than 8 feet. No long-range efforts required. Girrbach simply fired dart after dart from the fairways. His birdies at the 5th and 6th were especially impressive, as they are among the black course’s most difficult holes, even more so because he made them back-to-back.
His sixth birdie, at the 11th, did come from around 15 feet, but even then the impression was the same: the putter was playing its part, but the heavy lifting was being done long before he reached the green. At 32 years of age, with 119 tournaments under his belt, Girrbach has yet to taste victory at the highest level. His best result came in Madrid last year, when he narrowly missed out on a win that slipped away down the stretch.
This week, he has a second bite at the cherry. His second and final dropped shot of the day came at the 16th, a hole that has so far proved to be something of a thorn in his side; he also dropped a shot there in the opening round. Even so, Girrbach ends round two at -8 and his chances are still very much alive.
One year ago, Madrid showed him that he could contend for a title. Now it is offering him a chance at redemption. The course has already given him the best result of his career, might it also be the scene of his first big triumph?
