Staff WriterPablo Larrazábal has won nine times on the DP World Tour, travelled the golfing globe, survived the sport’s usual diet of scar tissue and sunburn, and still arrives at Real Club de Golf El Prat this week chasing something that would feel entirely different.
A home win.
Not just in Spain. Not nearby. Not almost poetic. Properly home.
The Estrella Damm Catalunya Championship opens the European Swing with the kind of storyline tournament organisers dream about and players pretend not to think about: Larrazábal, the local son, back at the club where he has been a member since childhood, trying to win in front of family, friends and his young son Thiago.
For a man with a résumé already rich enough to make most professionals chew their scorecards in envy, this one still has a special shelf waiting.
El Prat Welcomes Back the DP World Tour
Real Club de Golf El Prat is hosting its 12th DP World Tour event, but this week carries the feel of a reunion dinner where everyone quietly checks who has aged best.
The global tour has not been here for 11 years. In that time, Larrazábal has added six more DP World Tour titles, including victory at nearby INFINITUM, the long-time host of the final stage of DP World Tour Qualifying School.
He also became a father. Thiago turned two last month and is yet to see his dad lift a trophy in person. Larrazábal’s last victory came at the KLM Open in 2023, his fourth title in just over 12 months.
That is not bad going. In fact, it is rather like popping out for milk and returning with a chandelier.
But this week, Pablo Larrazábal is after the win that would land in the family album before the trophy cabinet.
Larrazábal Knows Every Nerve of This Place
El Prat is not one of those modern resort courses that flatters the reckless and forgives the loud. It is tree-lined, strategic, and rather fond of making a player explain himself.
Larrazábal knows the place well enough to understand that brute force alone will not get the job done. The course asks for angles, patience, and the good sense not to miss on the wrong side of a green.
He has history here, too. He finished tied third at the 2011 Open de España at El Prat and was inside the top 50 when the event returned in 2015.
Now, at 43, he comes back not as a promising Spaniard with a spring in his step, but as a seasoned winner who understands how rare these weeks are.
Pablo Larrazábal said: “I cannot imagine winning in front of my wife, my friends, in front of my son. It’s the only thing that I have left in my career to win in front of my son, it will be a dream come true.
“It would mean a lot because obviously a win at home would be… I won one hour away from home, in INFINITUM. Number seven was in INFINITUM.
“It’s great to be back. It’s been 11 years since the last time we played and it’s great to see the golf course moving in the right direction.
“We got unlucky a little bit that the rain came a couple of days ago… the fairways got a little bit way more wide open and the greens a little bit slower than what we were expecting or what we wanted to.
“But it’s tree-lined, tough, tough greens. It demands great strategy. It doesn’t demand super big-hitters. Obviously, always helps, but I think this golf course demands more strategy than others and knowing where you want to put the ball or where you want to miss around the greens.
“It’s going to be a great tournament. Hopefully the Barcelona crowds they come over and enjoy the tournament and Barcelona wins the league on Sunday.
“I don’t know if the people know but my dad always lived in Santander, so I practised a lot in Pedreña during summers. I spent a lot of time in Seve’s golf course. As I always said, he’s the captain of the boat.
“He left us too early but we try to make him proud, the way some of us play the game and he’s always going be remembered.
“I cannot believe that it’s been 15 years since he passed. And I remember playing here at the Spanish Open. I was doing well as well, back in the day. I remember having some very tough moments because he’s the one that took the flag of Spanish golf and obviously European Tour golf around the world and especially in the Ryder Cup and in Augusta as well.”
Spanish Golf Arrives with Depth, Edge and Youth
This will not be a one-man Catalan parade, however tempting the narrative may be.
A strong Spanish contingent joins Pablo Larrazábal in Barcelona, including Dubai Invitational champion Nacho Elvira and former European Ryder Cup player Rafa Cabrera Bello. Between them, they bring experience, pedigree and the kind of competitive seasoning you do not pick up from a launch monitor.
Then there is Ángel Ayora.
The 21-year-old is among the most highly rated young players in Spanish golf. He turned professional in 2023, won on the HotelPlanner Tour a year later, and made the jump to the DP World Tour with the look of someone who was not asking permission.
Across 45 starts on golf’s global tour, Ayora has registered 14 top-ten finishes. That is not merely promising. That is a young player tapping the glass and asking if everyone inside is quite finished.
He arrives at Real Club de Golf El Prat as one of the pre-tournament favourites, which says plenty about his talent and even more about how quickly he has made people stop treating him like potential.
Ángel Ayora Carries Spain’s Next Wave
Ayora’s game is still being shaped, but the results suggest the raw material is rather good. He has the tidy focus of a player who understands that golf swings may look pretty on video, but scorecards have never once awarded marks for posture.
Ángel Ayora said: “(Growing up) he meant a lot. At that moment, Sergio [Garcia] was the big name, but Seve was always up there for us. He is such an idol.
“It’s unlucky, I never met him but I have watched tons of video of him playing golf and he is an amazing person.
“We care about the look of the swing, but [the contact with] the ball is the most important. That is what I am focused on. Right now, [I am working] on my backswing. My tendency is to crush a little bit on the backswing, so try to shallow it a little bit, and then (also) the follow-through, the exit of the club with the shape I want.
“It was very firm and now it’s quite soft because of the rain. But yeah, I mean, I have good memories. I played here with my friends that tournament, so good memories.”
That last line matters. El Prat is not just another stop on the schedule for Spain’s players. It is memory, identity, pressure, and opportunity dressed up as 18 holes.
Seve Ballesteros Remembered at El Prat
For all the tournament bustle, Thursday will carry a deeper note.
It marks the 15th anniversary of the death of Seve Ballesteros, who passed away on the Saturday of the 2011 Open de España at El Prat. Players have been invited to wear his signature white and navy, with further tributes planned for the five-time Major champion.
Spanish golf still operates in Seve’s wake. Not as nostalgia, but as inheritance.
He was the man who dragged imagination into professional golf by the collar and made it sit at the top table. Augusta, the Ryder Cup, the European Tour — he put Spanish golf on the world stage with a smile, a stare, and a short game that appeared to have been invented by a magician with unresolved issues.
For Pablo Larrazábal and the Spanish players in the field, this week is not only about rankings, prize money or the European Swing. It is also about lineage.
What Victory Would Mean for Pablo Larrazábal
For Pablo Larrazábal, a victory at the Estrella Damm Catalunya Championship would not redefine his career. It would complete a corner of it.
He has already won often enough to avoid being called underrated by people who have not been paying attention. But winning at El Prat, in front of his wife, friends and son, would add a layer that no statistic can quite hold.
Golf careers are usually measured in titles, cuts made, Ryder Cup points, Race to Dubai positions and money lists. Yet the ones players carry most deeply are often simpler. A place. A crowd. A face in the gallery.
This week, Larrazábal has all three.
And should he find a way through the trees, the softened fairways, the slower greens and a Spanish field with plenty of appetite, the cherry on the cake may arrive in Barcelona with perfect timing.
