Pep Angles’ mother must have thought she was protecting her son when she stopped his childhood motocross ambitions but she was powerless to prevent the emotional strain involved in sealing a top 16 spot on the European Challenge Tour.
Europe’s top developmental tour may be known as ‘where heroes are made,’ but the season-ending NBO Golf Classic Grand Final can be where dreams are shattered, and the Spaniard arrived in Muscat occupying that precarious 16th place in the Road to Oman Rankings.
An opening round of 66 looked to have put the 23 year old firmly on the path to European Tour graduation, particularly with some of his Rankings rivals struggling, but nerves inevitably played a part on a dramatic final day at Al Mouj Golf.
Huge@pepangles seals a @EuropeanTour card with this brave putt on 18#NBOGrandFinal pic.twitter.com/BWG0HJYb6g
— Challenge Tour (@Challenge_Tour) November 5, 2016
Suddenly, with Jens Dantorp and Adrien Saddier on the charge, Angles was vulnerable to being overtaken at the 11th hour, not helped by early dropped shots, but he managed to hold his nerve and close out his round to claim his place in the 2017 Race to Dubai, ultimately finishing 14th on the Road to Oman.
“I have no words,” he said post-round in Oman. “Any words would come up short at this point, but I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved – I say ‘we’ because I must include my caddie, Jordi, in this too.
“I went through an injury in the middle of the season and had to skip quite a few events, and I was changing caddies all the time, so I was lucky to get a call from Jordi and I think we’ve done unbelievable work together.”
Having only turned professional at the end of 2015, Angles started the season without any Challenge Tour status but took full advantage of a national invite at the Challenge de Madrid by finishing third.
Further top tens soon followed in Italy and Switzerland before a breakthrough maiden victory looked set to come at the prestigious Rolex Trophy – bogeys on 17 and 18 dropped him into a share of second place.
Another runner-up finish at the Hainan Open tightened his grip on a top 16 spot and, following the inevitable late drama in Oman, Angles completed his rise to the European Tour, via the American college golf system and the Challenge Tour.
“I started playing golf when I was 11,” he said. “I used to do motocross racing when I was a child, but because of injury my mum kept telling me I needed to stop. I started playing on a pitch and putt on a little par three course next to my home to begin with for a couple of years.
“When I was 12 or 13 I started to play on bigger courses and it was from then on that I really got into golf.
“I knew that I wanted to turn professional when I decided to go and study in America. I went to High School in Spain and at the time I wanted to study Engineering. If you do such a difficult course it is hard to practise playing sports at the same time, so I had to choose somewhere where I could study and play sport. That’s why I chose to go to Arkansas as I knew that I could balance both there.
“I just remember those moments in front of the television watching Tiger Woods. He was such an idol for me growing up.”
