At a time where he has been open about his struggles on the course, Pablo Larrazábal revealed that US PGA Championship winner Aaron Rai left a hand-written note of encouragement in his locker the day before teeing up in the Genesis Scottish Open.
Rai, who has played on Tour with Larrazábal for years, had taken time to find pictures of Pablo's past successes and moments of strength, print them, write a note filled with words of encourgagement and put them into his locker at The Renaissance Club.
The note read: "Pablo, the guy in these pictures is you and is much closer to the present you than you think. Keep fighting, keep working hard and most importantly keep believing - in each tournament, in each round, and each shot. Best wishes, Aaron Rai".
Touched by the gesture, Larrazábal shared a video on instagram, writing"When you received a note in your locker room from the @pgachampionship winner @aaron.rai1. True gentleman on and off the course. Thank you my friend, still having some goosebumps."
It comes at a time where Larrazábal has been open about struggling on Tour this season. The nine-time DP World Tour winner missed nine consecutive cuts before making it to the weekend at the DS Automobiles 83° Open d'Italia last month.
“This is my 19th season out here, I have a family to support and I have a kid to take care of," the 43-year-old said candidly after the KLM Open at the start of June.
"Out of the 480 tournaments I’ve played in my career, the first five and these last five, I have been thinking about money and that’s not easy to play with.”
A week later, despite a closing bogey, he made his first cut since the Qatar Masters.
"It means so much," he said.
"I started thinking about the cut line. I made the best bogey of my career on the last to make it, there's not many times you putt from nine feet thinking careful.
"My game is a lot better than what the numbers are, and we have to think bigger."
While he finished tied 55th in Italy, Larrazábal then missed the cut again at last week's BMW International Open before arriving for the second Rolex Series event of the year at The Renaaissance Club.
After Rai's victory at the US PGA Championship there was an outpouring of sentiment about him being one of the nicest guys on Tour.
Rai's gesture to Larrazábal only cemented that status.
