Rafa took part once again in Sergio Garcia's Pro-Am golf tournament that is held just before the Castelló Masters.

The following article from abc.es was translated for us by nou.amic.

Nadal a golf champion too as he wins Pro-Am

Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal was a member of the 4-man golf team led by Sergio Garcia that won the Pro-Am tournament held on the eve of the Castellón Masters. The team (which included Tomeu Salvá and Manuel de los Santos as well as Nadal and Garcia) finished their round at the Club del Mediterraneo in Borriol on 23 under par.



Nadal, 25 years old, who plays off a handicap of 8.7, said in his recently published autobiography that at one moment in his life he had seriously considered becoming a professional golfer.

"It would be far too arrogant of me to think I could turn to playing golf. It was a thought that I had in my head for a couple of days. It was in 2005, when I was 19 years old, at a time when I had an injury," Nadal commented.

"You have to start out when you are small if you want to be a professional in such a demanding environment as sport, otherwise it is impossible. Golf is an activity that helps me relax," said Nadal.



An article by Mario Día in elmundo.es examined Rafa's golfing technique. Again, we are indebted to nou.amic for the translation.

Nadal, just as aggressive as with his racquet

There is a popular saying/refrain that a golf player's handicap is equal to the number of days he works per month. That is certainly not the case with Rafael Nadal (handicap 8.7 at present) who, as every fan knows, is a hard worker if ever there was one who has practically never dropped out of the top two places in the ATP world ranking in the past seven years. So, how come he is such a good golfer if he is hardly ever without a tennis racquet in his hands?


The Balearic tennis player's love of golf has been common knowledge for some time now but his 'hidden' passion for the sport is not as well known as the feelings he has for football and Real Madrid. He is a fixture every year in Sergio Garcia's Castellón Masters Pro-Am tournament playing with Sergio Garcia, one of his great friends. He was there again this year (2011), giving us a perfect opportunity to analyse his game in detail and, basically, his swing, so alike in tennis players and golfers, though in his case they are really not very much alike at all, because Nadal is righthanded at everything except tennis.


Many tennis coaches advise their pupils not to play golf because of the danger of equating the swing employed in the one sport with that of the other and changing from a horizontal plane to a more vertical one. This, precisely, could be one of the Manacorian's few problems. When he is using the No.1 wood, and almost any other club, his backswing is excessively vertical, which accompanied by a slight displacement of his hip to the left at almost exactly the same time causes him to not to hit the ball cleanly moving it from right to left.



Evidently, when Nadal does connect with a good shot, the flight of the ball is that of a player of great quality. He demonstrated this when teeing off at the eighth hole at the Club Campo Mediterranéo, where he managed to put a fine drive by Sergio Garcia in the shade. The down side is when that magic, as every golfer knows, does not happen, which could be because of the grip. As, if you don't manage to get the club to return from the backswing along the same line, the ball could end up to the left of your target, as happened to him on several occasions.


Curiously, he also grips the club much lower down than most amateurs. A recourse he could have acquired as a result of his great physical strength. In fact, it should not be forgotten that the left hand is the dominant one and if there is one thing that really astonishes all Nadal's followers it is the strength he employs in his left-handed shots throughout the tennis season. Although I must say, it (the low grip) is a recourse that served him really well during Wednesday's match whenever he found himself in a bunker.



His approach shots are delicate and perhaps the most striking thing about the Roland Garros champion's game is the way he putts. Like many other amateurs, Nadal examines the line and, once he knows the way he wants the ball to go, he lines up the putter face while still face on to the hole himself and then, after that, gets into position to address the ball. A routine that does not prevent him, however, from being a good middle distance putter, as he showed in Castellón. In fact, it was many of those shots of his that enabled him, Sergio Garcia, Tomeu Salva and Manuel de los Santos to win the Pro-Am tournament with a combined aggregate of 23 under par. Next to nothing.