Larrazabal, in the grouping behind, eagled 10 to entrench his lead, but then dropped a shot on 11.
No sweat. Walking off the 12th tee Larrazabal, countryman Nacho Elviro and their caddies laughed and joked as they strolled down the fairway. They could have been walking down Las Ramblas in Barcelona. And that was the attitude that lifted Larrazabal to his sixth DP World Tour triumph on Sunday.
“I felt good this morning. I slept well last night and I felt like I had a chance,” he said.
“Yesterday I didn’t play any good golf, today I played better golf. Obviously my driving was not great in the back nine, but my mental game was very special today. It doesn’t matter how many bogeys I made, I stepped into the next tee feeling that I had to make birdie and that’s what I did.”
He birdied 12 and 13, dropped on 14 and birdied the 15th to enjoy the sole lead on 23 under par. But he bogeyed the par-three 17th, missing a short putt that he admitted pained him, condemning him to a play-off, which was done on the 18th.
That slip might have destroyed many players, but Larrazabal — as colourful as his card on the final nine with an eagle, three birdies, three bogeys and two pars — had too much fight for his rivals.
The first play-off hole he was furthest from the pin, perhaps 10 feet away, and he nailed the putt for birdie. Arnaus missed his birdie shy to drop out.
On the second play-off, still the 18th, Larrazabal again birdied the hole, this time from much closer, and Smith three-putted.
At prize-giving a spectator shouted, “Viva Espana”. Larrazabal, whose last win came at Leopard Creek in 2019, shouted back: “Viva South Africa.”
Golf
Laughing Larrazabal triumphs after three-way playoff
Image: Warren Little/Getty Images
Spaniard Pablo Larrazábal laughed in the face of adversity before winning the $1.5m MyGolfLife Open at Pecanwood on Sunday after a three-way play-off.
He beat off Englishman Jordan Smith and fellow Catalan Adri Arnaus to claim the $250,000 (R3.8m) winner’s cheque, after wasting a couple of chances to sew this up in regulation play.
Starting the day two shots off the pace, Larrazabal carded three birdies on the front nine to move to the top of the leader board, and that’s when the competition roared to life.
Smith, with one DP World Tour victory under his belt, looked confident on the tee box of the par-five 10th after birdies on holes eight and nine. Having smashed his drive to just off the left side of the fairway, he marched with purpose to his waiting ball. Smith knocked his approach into the greenside bunker on the right, but he splashed out close and sank the putt for a birdie.
“I got through nine and then I set myself a number after that, I thought if I could get to 24 [under par] that would be a decent effort,” said the 29-year-old.
He birdied 11 and 12, but after that the shots dried up, though he did well to save par on 14.
Larrazabal, in the grouping behind, eagled 10 to entrench his lead, but then dropped a shot on 11.
No sweat. Walking off the 12th tee Larrazabal, countryman Nacho Elviro and their caddies laughed and joked as they strolled down the fairway. They could have been walking down Las Ramblas in Barcelona. And that was the attitude that lifted Larrazabal to his sixth DP World Tour triumph on Sunday.
“I felt good this morning. I slept well last night and I felt like I had a chance,” he said.
“Yesterday I didn’t play any good golf, today I played better golf. Obviously my driving was not great in the back nine, but my mental game was very special today. It doesn’t matter how many bogeys I made, I stepped into the next tee feeling that I had to make birdie and that’s what I did.”
He birdied 12 and 13, dropped on 14 and birdied the 15th to enjoy the sole lead on 23 under par. But he bogeyed the par-three 17th, missing a short putt that he admitted pained him, condemning him to a play-off, which was done on the 18th.
That slip might have destroyed many players, but Larrazabal — as colourful as his card on the final nine with an eagle, three birdies, three bogeys and two pars — had too much fight for his rivals.
The first play-off hole he was furthest from the pin, perhaps 10 feet away, and he nailed the putt for birdie. Arnaus missed his birdie shy to drop out.
On the second play-off, still the 18th, Larrazabal again birdied the hole, this time from much closer, and Smith three-putted.
At prize-giving a spectator shouted, “Viva Espana”. Larrazabal, whose last win came at Leopard Creek in 2019, shouted back: “Viva South Africa.”
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