Being in the top 50 of the Race to Dubai Rankings was one of my main goals and to be able to say that I have sealed my place in the DP World Tour Championship at this point of the season just shows that I had a solid year.
Not long after writing my last column I managed to get my sixth top 10 of the season with a tied fourth place at the Open de España and it was one of the most memorable weeks I’ve had this season. Having the home crowd supporting me was so special.
I was in the ‘headline’ group with fellow Spaniards Rafa Cabrera Bello and Jon Rahm over the first two rounds and then played my way into the final group for the third round so there was a lot of attention but I really enjoyed being in that situation. I fell back a little bit on the fourth day but it was good to get another strong result at an event with a strong field and it was enjoyable having such great support.
I had some friends who came over for the weekend and I had shirts made for them with my logo on and the phrase “Vamos AA”! They wore them at the tournament and I think they appeared on TV a few times so they were pretty much the spotlight too! I think I should bring them to the DP World Tour Championship and rival Sully’s Army!
The 2-iron from 232 yards
The eagle putt
The fist pump @AdriArnaus #OpenES pic.twitter.com/CJrV1y4NMd— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) October 4, 2019
Rolex Series
As I write this column, I’m still waiting on whether I get into the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai. I’m the fourth reserve and keeping my fingers crossed because I really want to take part in that event, but it looks like I might miss out on it by a small margin this time. However, the last three tournaments of the season are great events and I’m looking forward to the Turkish Airlines Open, the Nedbank Golf Challenge and, of course, the DP World Tour Championship.
The Rolex Series is a great concept which has enhanced the European Tour and pretty much every player wants to play in those events. The fields are really good quality with lots of the big names so you have to play your best golf and it is a great experience for me to play in those events.
I think that more and more PGA Tour players will come over from the US to take part in the Rolex Series events, as we saw in the BMW PGA Championship. There were a lot of US players among the top 50 in the World Golf Rankings who came over and made the field really strong, which is the main goal. Overall I think it is becoming more of a ‘world tour’ and higher ranked players from around the world will play in the Rolex Series and WGC events so that makes it really interesting and it’s great for players like me who are having their rookie season to be able to share the field with them.
DP World Tour Championship
Being in the top 50 of the Race to Dubai Rankings was one of my main goals and to be able to say that I have sealed my place in the DP World Tour Championship at this point of the season just shows that I had a solid year. It makes me really proud because coming from the Challenge Tour I was wary about whether I could compete on the bigger stages but I managed it pretty well and I’m just really excited to compete in Dubai which is going to be my new home starting next year. It is good to start getting the feel of playing there and also not forgetting that I really want to go out there and try to win. It has the biggest first prize in golf and the biggest Race to Dubai points so that motivates me even more.
I’ve only played the Earth course at Jumeirah Golf Estates once before, the week before we played the Challenge Tour Grand Final in Ras Al Khaimah last year. I only played the back nine but I managed to get a feel for it.
I remember my coach and I thought it was a course where you need to hit the ball quite long and put it in the right spots on the greens and feel like there are some good scoring opportunities out there. The par threes are really challenging and quite long but that just adds to the thrill and overall it is a great course.
It will be very interesting to tackle the ‘golden mile’ of the final four holes and when I think about the 18th, Henrik Stenson’s shot into the green in 2016 comes to mind which was fantastic and hopefully we can relive one of those moments again.
EDGA
I think the idea of adding the EDGA Dubai Finale for golfers of determination into this year’s event is a wonderful one.
The European Tour always aims to have initiatives that include everyone and golf has room for all. I like to be a part of these initiatives and I’m proud to be a member of the European Tour.
Not long after writing my last column I managed to get my sixth top 10 of the season with a tied fourth place at the Open de España and it was one of the most memorable weeks I’ve had this season. Having the home crowd supporting me was so special.
