Golf has been teetering dangerously towards becoming like tennis. It matters for four events of the season and that’s it until next year folks! Then there’s the so-called fifth major, but forget about the Players Championship, national opens are the real jewel in golf’s crown.
DP World Tour viewing always improves towards the back end of the year. The PGA Tour is over and done with, so the big hitters from Europe flock back to this side of the Atlantic and play in some of the bigger events to round off the autumn.
The last five events on the DP World Tour between September and October have been thrillers, with the Amgen Irish Open and Spanish Open being two of the highlights given the circumstances which unfolded.
September began with Rory McIlroy trying to win his national open at the Amgen Irish Open in Royal County Down. Here was a player who could have turned a season of near misses and regret into one to remember for all the right reasons and in typical McIlroy fashion, he managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by a combination of his own costly errors and a late run from Rasmus Højgaard.
McIlroy may not have won but what transpired on the 18th hole was something fit to rival any major championship. After playing one of the great approaches to the 18th green under a massive amount of pressure, Royal County Down turned fever pitch.
The atmosphere was electric as McIlroy galloped down the fairway towards the green ready for one last roll of the dice. Any tournament with McIlroy in contention is better because he will both lift you up and let you down in a matter of moments. Then there was the anguish, the stony silence, when the chance to win his home open in front of his own people slipped away.
Then came the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, the flagship event on the DP World Tour and a week that never disappoints. Again, McIlroy was the centre of attention, and it was another near miss for the 35-year-old, but it was another thrilling finish to a DP World Tour event that featured a brilliant field. In many ways Billy Horschel is an adopted European and he was a very popular winner.
The PGA Tour threw up several feel-good winners this season and they needed it to try and divert the spotlight away from the depleted fields in the early part of the year, but nothing compares to the raw emotion of Angel Hidalgo winning the Spanish Open.
A David vs Goliath story. Hidalgo, 26, perched just inside the top 400 in the world was chasing a career changing victory in Madrid and he had the daunting task of trying to hold off the all-conquering Jon Rahm. A former world number one, a two-time major winner and three-time Spanish Open champion.
Hidalgo was pure box office viewing whether it was his all or nothing, hell for leather golf swing, playing up to the galleries or how he managed to both throw it away and win it all in the space of half an hour.
The putt to win in regulation was probably one of the worst putts you’ll ever see. The entire weight of the magnitude of the situation rested upon Hidalgo’s shoulders and he could barely take the putter back such were his nerves. Rahm’s ominous look only made you fear for Hidalgo more, but he responded brilliantly and deservedly got over the line on the second playoff hole.
The emotion that spilled over was what makes the DP World Tour special and if a world tour is the solution to golf’s civil war, then any European swing must be built around national opens. Irish Opens, French Opens, Spanish Opens, the lot.
Hidalgo could scarcely believe what he had just achieved. Rahm will go on to earn millions upon millions of dollars in his career with surely more major championships to boot but this will most likely be the highlight of Hidalgo’s career.
In a sport where money is at the centre of the conflict, nobody ever questions the prize purse at a national open…
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