Nacho Elvira’s victory seen by his caddy Diego Suazo

Electrical storm in Northern Ireland. They send us to the clubhouse. It seems to be going on for a long time, a good time to share with you what happened on Sunday. You know: his first win on the European Tour, my first win, our first win. The first feeling that I still have today, when 48 hours have passed, is happiness. Much joy because the much and good work we have done has paid off. Because yes, because whatever they say, here we work to win … and much more when it comes to the first victory.

It is joy to achieve one of the objectives I had, and even more so with Nacho Elvira. Before getting into what happened on Sunday, the week and the key moments of the win, I want to do a little history. They are not the adventures of grandfather chives, but almost. I like that they know where all this that we got last Sunday comes from.

Nacho and I have always been good friends, but this exciting professional adventure begins in January 2016. I had had a good season as a professional in 2014, but in 2015 things had not gone too well for me. I spoke with Nacho and told him that if he did not have a caddy, I would love to go with him to feel the experience of the European Tour, get some money and, above all, learn, see them up close and see first-hand where my golf was. I wanted to know what I had to improve to get there one day.

Nacho did not have a good playing streak. Since ascending to the European Tour after winning three tournaments in the Challenge it hadn’t gone well. In that Desert Tour Where we started, he arrived with eight or nine failed cuts in a row… and we failed all three again: Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Dubai. That helped me to realize several things. The first is that after eleven years as a professional I found that there, in those players, there was something different that I did not have. The next thing I knew, Nacho was a winner and that he had a lot of potential. And the third and most important thing, surely, is that there were some things that, from my point of view, could be done differently and still worked. I liked the experience, I thought I could help him and I told him that I would be delighted to continue with him if it seemed good to him… And so it was.

After that, we worked four weeks in a row at home with his whole team, some things were polished and the first week of competition in Thailand ended up sixteenth playing very well. Very shortly after, he finished second in Morocco. We are making progress…

I have always believed a lot in Nacho, but it was inevitable that doubts would appear after a year and a half without good results. Looking in perspective, I think that the Covid has not done us well. It doesn’t go with Nacho’s character. He is more intuitive, a free soul, he does not like to be restricted in protocols and schedules. This new reality cost us. It has been hard, but you have to take off your hat because little by little it has been fitting. I already said that some doubts appeared, minimal and logical, but never enough to stop believing.

I have always said and continue to maintain that Nacho is a winner. He has always performed well when he has been at the top and that is no coincidence. Of course there are nerves, everyone has nerves, but he copes well with that tension. The demonstration was on Sunday. When he played best it was from hole 13, when the tournament was being decided and the classification was tightening. From 13 to 18 he took his best golf.

On Sunday we kept the same strategy of the first three days. It had worked and there was no reason to change anything. It is possible that in an almost unconscious way, because of the advantage we had, you still protect yourself a little more, but it was not the plan. The idea was to play the same. By the way, the shot from hole 5, the second from the fairway, which was not seen on television, the ball was in a chop and that is why it hits heavy and falls so short. At no point are we talking about having a conservative strategy, it’s just golf. Actually, the difference between the first three days and Sunday is that that day we did not get the first three meter-and-a-half putts. The difference was from being the first holes +1 to having done it -2. If Nacho gets to put the first short putts we are sure that there would have been no tournament.

Nacho prefers not to know the results. He does not like to know where others are and we have more than talked about it, but I did have all the results in my head. On the way from 14 to 15 I saw that the three of us were tied (Nacho, Korhonen and Harding) with -15. I don’t say anything to him because I know he doesn’t like to know, but when we discuss the strategy in that short par 4, I suggest that we hit the green with the drive because he has hit very well all week. Nacho does not hesitate. He sees it clearly. I knew at the time that the birdie was important. Hit it up. Spectacular.

On the 18th hole we decided not to hit the green of two because we know that Harding has made par. Par is worth to us and the shot to the green is delicate. It’s a long shot and you have four meters to bounce. It was not worth the risk. It did not make sense. The third shot was perfect, where we wanted, he bounced on the green eight meters long from the flag and had to return, he was nowhere near perfect and to have been left with a clear birdie option. The same is not seen on television, but that hole 18, if you mess up, it can be very hard. Vincent Norrman, who played with us on Saturday, took 10 strokes.

In the birdie putt on the 18th hole, I don’t tell him about the result, the only thing he told him is that he pulls to let her die… I imagine he senses that par is worth it. He missed the birdie and the back one and he told me, damn, how nervous he was on that putt. At that moment, I remember what Martin Kaymer said in 2012 about the winning putt of the Ryder de Medinah. What he thought at the time was: forget where you are, forget it’s the Ryder, try to isolate yourself from all that and just think it’s a six-foot putt uphill to the left. You’ve put thousands into your career like that. Do it and go. I reminded him of that and he said it helped him calm down. I’m very satisfied if we can get at least five beats down.

Many are now asking if Nacho is going to win many more tournaments. I am not a fortune teller, I do not see the future and I do not like to talk about such things. Just as before winning I knew I could do it, now I believe in it the same or more, but you have to keep working very hard. We have to do things well if we want more victories. I always say the same thing: you have to focus on the process, the triumphs are a consequence.

If I look at myself, only at me, I would say that what I am most proud of is the strategy that the two of us devised to play the field and how we turned the situation around from The Belfry. Things were not going well and we were able to touch some points to turn it around little by little. We made some changes and, above all, we decided to keep them over time. I give more importance to that than to Sunday. Triumph is a consequence.

He had been playing well, hitting the ball much better and the last thing left to square was the putter. There was important an encounter with Mike Kamski, assistant Phil Kenyon. He watched him for half an hour in Scotland and told him that he did everything well, that he aimed well, that he moved the stick well and that he only had to concentrate on strength and visualization. Nacho was very helpful when I told him that he was doing well. It gave him security and confidence. By the way, you have to thank Jorge Campillo. Kamski saw Nacho in a part of the class that Jorge had hired, since he is one of the most sought-after coaches right now on the European Tour and did not have free appointments. Huge, Jorge.