In time, the happy pack of fans dispersed and the Spaniard took a step back and lit one of his famous cigars. As luck would have it, the first puff detonated the arrival of a new wave of child-carrying supporters. Gently, he laid the cigar on the ground and started all over again, bending down to have his picture taken with the little ones and embarking on chat that was every bit as animated as what had gone before.
Dinner must have been on his mind but, an hour and a half after he had posted his score, he was still some way away from his first glass of Rioja. A practice session away, to be precise.
He spent another hour sorting out the handful of drives which had gone awry in his 69 and then and only then did he head for his hotel.
That really was it, or so we thought. Yet, at the following week’s BMW PGA Championship, we learned that he had been up until one o’clock every night during that Gerona week as he dined with comrades he had known all his golfing days.
Pages
Click here to see the published article.
