Rafa Cabrera-Bello and Tommy Fleetwood teed off from the 10th this morning hoping to stamp their authority on the field and forget their mediocre Thursdays. However, their hopes were dashed by the shortest club in the bag. The Canary Islander has been out of sorts for a number of months. The 11th hole today provided a perfect example of the Spaniard’s woes. His tee shot was just centimetres over the green, he then misread his putt from the fringe and his third shot horseshoed out; bogey. When you’re not playing your best golf, you’d better hope luck is on your side. In the case of Cabrera, it is not.
Nothing he tries on the greens seems to come off, the rest of his game however, is in reasonable shape. Rafa has frequently declared this week that “my game isn’t as far off as the results would suggest”, and he is not wrong. The Spaniard has been very solid from tee to green and his iron play is hard to beat. On his first nine this morning, he left himself plenty of birdie opportunities, but more often than not failed to convert them. It is not for a lack of desire either, the two times he took a shot from the course he punched the air in rage.
The Canary Islander’s fight to turn his form around continues. It won’t happen this week though. His title defence ends here and he won’t be able to enjoy the heat of the battle as he did last year. However, there is no reason to think he won’t be back to his best soon. It is simply a question of patience, hard work and belief, three things Rafa has in boatloads.
His playing partner today and one of the biggest stars at this ACCIONA Open de España presented by Madrid (alongside Rahm, who is in a league of his own) was Tommy Fleetwood. The Englishman’s round today could not have been less eventful. 12 straight pars and still searching for the spark that failed to materialise yesterday. He simply cannot find the hole once he is on the green. Despite that, we may yet get to enjoy Tommy’s golf again this weekend; his 69 today leaves him at 3 under par and he looks set to make the cut. He is in a similar situation to Cabrera. He is one of those players who would have at least one major under his belt if he could just master the flat stick. Sergio Garcia in the past, or Finau at the moment, are proof that it doesn’t matter how good you are tee to green, if the putts don’t drop, there’s nothing you can do. As they used to say; drive for show, putt for dough.
Much to the surprise of the 300 fans who followed their group from early in the morning, it was Oliver Wilson who provided most of the entertainment. The Englishman was spraying his ball everywhere from the tee, but time and again delighted the crowds with some spectacular recoveries. For example, before TV coverage began, Wilson hit a block from the 15th tee that ended almost 100 yards from its target, on the 12th fairway. You will struggle to see a better shot this week than the one that followed. His purely-struck iron sailed over the greenside bunker defending the pin and landed like a butterfly with sore feet one yard from the hole. He would roll in the putt for birdie with an ease that his playing partners are currently not familiar with.
