Everybody loves Pablo
Martin's been enjoying every minute of his African adventure
In the absence of Ernie Els at this weekend’s South African Open, a lot of us golf media (we’re just fans like anyone else, remember) have been on the lookout for a new favourite. And in Pablo Martin we’ve undoubtedly found a guy who we’ve all taken to, even though – shock, horror – he’s not South African.
I’m not sure if the public out there have been able to get a sense of what a great character the Spaniard is, but those of us lucky enough to meet him in the press conferences have been blown away by the guy. Given that he’s been leading or winning just about every day since the start of last week’s Alfred Dunhill Championship, we’ve gotten to know him pretty well by now.
If Martin wins the South African Open this afternoon, there’s going to be an enormous cheer in the press room, and I’d encourage neutral spectators out on the Pearl Valley course to get behind him too. If you have to choose between backing Martin or, say, the rather serious Anders Hansen, don’t hesitate.
What is it we so like about Pablo? Certainly his carefree game and the way he rides his luck has something to do with it. Last Saturday at Leopard Creek his ball missed the water hazard on 18 and rolled onto the bridge. Even better, he played it as it lay. Yesterday at Pearl Valley, he played one off a cart path. On neither occasion did he even bother to call a rules official. No airs, no graces.
He hit the ball terribly yesterday but scraped together a cheeky 72 that included an outrageous slice of luck on the 12th. He’d hit it into a water hazard, but the ball struck a rock and bounced onto the green. He then promptly holed the birdie putt! He also hit a guy on the head on the seventh. Then he came in and told us, “I played absolutely crap. It was fun….this is golf, and it’s even more fun when you get good breaks!”
It’s the things he says afterwards that are so priceless, and the fact that he’ll smile even on a day like yesterday. Last weekend he admitted he’d just come to Leopard Creek ‘to see the animals’ and told us the presence of his sister was a common factor in all his golf wins. Maria has gone home now, but he admitted on Friday that he’d ‘kept one or two of her clothes for good luck…she doesn’t know!’
There’s been an increasing level of banter in his press conferences, to the point where I asked him earlier this week if he was disappointed at the lack of big animals in Cape Town.
“No, actually, we had a good look around the Cape of Good Hope reserve,” he replied. “And we saw some big chickens running around.”
I guess they don’t have a Spanish word for ostrich…
As for me, I’ve been sneaking in a bit of early morning range practice before heading out to Pearl Valley each day. After a couple of days of cluelessly hitting balls (it’s going all over the place again) I gave up and just did putting this morning.
You see, with putting I find that practice brings clear results. All you’re looking for is rhythm, smoothness and stillness. I don’t think it needs a lot of coaching. But the golf swing…that’s another story and I might very well be wasting my time practicing the wrong things. I’m starting to realise I can’t do this without a full-time coach. To this end, I had a promising meeting at Pearl Valley yesterday. Watch this space…
Interesting insights into Martin’s character. If you had to choose a pro tour player that you are similar to in character, who would it be? This could be based on personal interaction or impressions from interviews you’ve seen and behaviour on the course.
A very good question, Mr Breath. It’s hard to say. I think I’d be a very different character on a good day to on a bad day. Perhaps, then, Colin Montgomerie. Although I’d like to think there’s no physical resemblance.