The meteoric rise of Andres Romero continued with the news the 26 year old had climbed into the World’s Top 30 following his impressive victory in The Deutsche Bank Players’ Championship of Europe, adding another chapter to the glorious summer for Argentine golf.
Romero now finds himself mixing with the game’s elite having become the final player to qualify for the WGC – Bridgestone Invitational, which takes place at Firestone Country Club, Akron, Ohio, this week, and his climb from 114th to 29th in two weeks will have also secured a debut at the US PGA Championship.
Just seven days after coming agonisingly close to winning the greatest prize of all, The Open Championship, which he led with two holes to play at Carnoustie before finishing double bogey, bogey, Romero went a long way to making amends with his impressive three stroke victory at Gut Kaden.
His swashbuckling style and happy-go-lucky attitude over the last fortnight has endeared him to many, and he is not about to change as he looks to his next two events.
“I am going to play it my way,” said a beaming Romero immediately after his win on Sunday. “I know I make a lot of bogeys, but I also make a lot of birdies. I don’t know the golf courses the next two weeks. If they have a lot of trouble, I will take care but I will play it my way.”
Romero’s victory comes hot on the heels of Angel Cabrera’s win in the US Open Championship in June, the first Argentine success in a Major for 40 years since Roberto de Vicenzo won The Open in 1967 at Hoylake. It was also the fourth Argentine victory of the season following the early triumphs by Ariel Canete and Daniel Vancsik, in the Joburg Open and the Madeira Island Open BPI respectively. It is the first time that four Argentine golfers have won in the same European Tour season.
The win by Cabrera at Oakmont Country Club in particular has instilled a new sense of confidence and purpose in all the Argentina players and Romero was quick to reap the rewards. He almost made it an incredible Major Championship double when he forged to the top of the leaderboard on the final day of The Open with ten birdies in his first 16 holes, but a mix of inexperience and bad luck over Carnoustie’s closing two holes left him one shy of the play-off between Padraig Harrington and Sergio Garcia.
He thought about heading home to Argentina after that disappointment but decided to play in Germany as he liked the course and knew he was playing well. It proved the right decision. Victory on Sunday had the added bonus of lifting him to fourth on The European Tour Order of Merit, one place above Cabrera, and given him a five year exemption.
“I love the way Angel Cabrera plays and after he won the US Open he opened all the doors for the Argentinians and I was thinking I had to do my share now,” admitted Romero. “I am very grateful to Angel. Because he won the US Open, I have even more confidence to play good golf.”
Like Cabrera before him, Romero was taken under the wing of his namesake and the standard bearer for Argentinian golf for the last two decades, Eduardo Romero. SMG International SA, Eduardo’s management company, also manage Andres.
Speaking ahead of The Senior Open Championship, presented by Aberdeen Asset Management, at Muirfield, where he went on to finish joint fourth, Eduardo talked of his first meeting with Andres.
“When Andres was seven he was a caddie,” he recalled. “When I went to play a tournament in his city in the north of Argentina, all the time he stood beside me and said to me, ‘give me golf ball, give me a tee’, and he was seven years old.
“And the one day, somebody said to me, ‘ Have you seen Andres play?’ Who?
‘The little guy who follows you all the time’.
“It was nice. He is a very strong, good character and a fantastic player. And all the time he is smiling, all the time you see him making bogey, double bogey, he’s exactly the same, a nice character.”
Thomas Björn was one player who soon spotted this prodigious talent. Just ahead of the Irish Open at Adare Manor in May, Björn was telling the assembled media that here was a player to watch out for.
He had already enjoyed a tremendous rookie season in 2006 after emerging from the Challenge Tour with victory in the 2005 Morson International Pro-Am Challenge under his belt. Four top tens, including a share of second place in The Barclays Scottish Open at Loch Lomond and joint eighth in The Open Championship at Hoylake, his Major Championship debut, helped him finish 35th on The European Tour Order of Merit.
“I think one of the things that people have got to take a very big note of on this Tour is that we have a major generation change,” stated Björn. “It might be that people don't know some of the players on this Tour, but I'm telling you, in five years, a lot of those guys, people will know a lot about and they will come through and be the strength of the Tour.
“Players like Oliver Wilson (who incidentally finished joint second to Romero in the Deutsche Bank Players’ Championship of Europe), Ross Fisher, Alvaro Quiros out of Spain is a great player, and Andres Romero. You see a lot of talent. When you stand on the range next to them you can certainly see that there's a lot of potential. They are players that will take their game to a different level.
“There's no fear. That's the difference. When I came out on Tour, you had a lot of respect for your Faldos and Olazábals and your Montgomeries, and it took you quite a while to just feel comfortable. These kids don't care. They just come out. They have one goal in mind, and they just want to win golf tournaments and they don't care who they are up against. That's the big difference I see today. They are going to come out in strength and come out in bigger numbers as well. They just don't care and think about themselves and get to win golf tournaments, which is the right approach in doing it.”
The fact that there have already been 15 first time winners on The European Tour International Schedule this year backs Björn’s argument and Romero is one of those leading the new generation, with a smile getting ever broader.
