Spanish golf has fabulous bandwidth. On a Tuesday that will be inscribed with letters of gold in the pages of the Spanish Golf Federation that Gonzaga Escauriaza will no longer preside over – coincidentally he announced on the same day that he is not running for election – Jaime Montojo and Luis Masaveu, two of his European champion boys last year, both partners of the distinguished Madrid golf course of La Moraleja, qualified for the British Open, the last professional Major of the season, which Severiano Ballesteros won three times, by taking two of the four tickets that were at the Royal Cinque Ports, a club with the tradition which gives its year of foundation (1892) and setting of the British on two occasions. They will accompany, for now, Jon Rahm, David Puig, Jorge Campillo and Angel Hidalgo to Troon from July 18 to 21.
First it was Jaime. One of the most famous surnames in national golf, the Montojos, It finally achieved international fame thanks to the second generation. The 19-year-old from Madrid, a student at Texas A&M University, where the Fernández Poggio sisters also attend – and Adri Arnaus did before -, qualified after scoring 71 and 70 strokes in the 36-hole marathon that they had to play on Tuesday. Montojo had to make two birdies in the last four holes to achieve a score that was no longer matched by the players remaining in the field.
Access to the last Major of the season is the finishing touch to a great calendar year for the Spaniard. In July of last year, together with Ayora, Ballester, Masaveu and Barcos, with a decisive performance, they won the European Team Championship. Later, in his second year at the university, in April of this year, the business administration student won the Aggie Invitational.
Jaime is the youngest in a saga of golfers that dates back to the 19th century. His paternal great-grandmother was already an accomplished golfer. His father Luis was a notable player who was on the national teams in the early 80s and coincided with José María Olazábal, as revealed by the Spanish Golf Federation. In addition, four of his uncles played in the Spanish Championship in the lower categories in 1974 and, to top it all off, he and his brothers Luis – who became champion of Spain -, Ana and Gonzalo coincided in the children’s, junior and youngest championships in 2012 in La Manga Club. “He is a very complete player, with a great short game. One of those who can have a great professional career,” says the Federation’s sports director, Nacho Gervás.
A great putt to break the tie
Luis Masaveu, meanwhile, had it even more tense. The golfer who shone at the start of the 2022 Spanish Open He reached the tiebreaker against the proven Branden Grace, who has won on the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and the LIV Golf, and the Englishman Jamie Rutherford. A six-meter putt on the second playoff hole made the Madrid native the seventy-first Spanish golfer to debut in the majors. Masaveu, 21 years old, had scored 72 shots and 70 respectively.
“He hits the ball like few others, few people have impressed me like him,” says Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño, his coach for a year. “It’s going to be very, very good.” A student at the University of Francisco de Vitoria, where he combines studies and golf, he renounced following the path of American campuses. With substitute clubs, because the ones he usually uses were lost on a flight last Sunday from Copenhagen to Madrid, Masaveu played a great afternoon with only one bogey on his opening hole and three birdies. “It’s been a great experience. If he asks me, I’ll caddy for him,” says Fernández-Castaño, who has played for British six times.
