The pictures? Three of them.
The sentences? Two of them.
The value?
Immeasurable.
That was what Pablo Larrazabal thought. He’s a 22-year pro and a nine-time winner on the DP World Tour, but he’s been slumping. The 43-year-old Spaniard has made just three cuts in 14 starts this year. He’s winless since May of 2023. He’s without a top 10 finish since March of last year. Of course, the margin between that and where he had been — or where someone like Aaron Rai currently is — is thinner than a blade of fairway grass.
In May, Rai broke through. He won the PGA Championship. He’s a major winner now, and Monday, three days before the Genesis Scottish Open, Larrazabal bumped into his old friend and congratulated him. He’d made it, from the 22-year who was trying to find his way on the DP World Tour eight years ago, to holding the damn Wanamaker Trophy. Rai then wondered how Larrazabal’s season was going.
“And he said he’d been struggling a little bit,” Rai told the DP World Tour.
“I hadn’t really checked … so I haven’t really kept track of what players are doing so it was the first that I heard of how his season has been. Then yeah, continued practicing, but it kind of stuck with me a little bit of what he had said.
“And he’s been — obviously he’s won nine times. He’s been one of the strongest players on the DP World Tour for 15 years now. And I thought those periods can be extremely difficult for anyone, let alone someone who’s been as successful as what he has.”
Rai went to work.
He’d write a note. He’d ask his brother-in-law, who’s with him this week, to find some trophy photos of Larrazabal. He’d place it all in the pro’s locker. Rai told the DP World Tour that a few players had done something similar for him after winning the PGA, and he was inspired. “I thought he would read it,” Rai said, “and I didn’t think anything else would come from it.”
Larrazabal, though, was floored. You might be, too.
Thursday morning, the pro shared it to Instagram, writing: “When you recieved 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.” Below is the post, and below that are the words written on the note.
Pablo,
The guy in these pictures is who you are and he is much closer to the present you than you think. Keep fighting, keep working hard and most importantly keep believing – in each tournament, each round and each shot.
Best wishes,
Aaron Rai
“It just felt like the right thing to do,” Rai told the DP World Tour.
Larrazabal thought so.
“To receive a note like that make me very happy that I’ve been doing the right things around for the last 19 years,” he told the DP World Tour. “And a guy like Aaron, he’s a major champion but a true champion. That’s how champions have to behave. When they see a rival or a friend that is down in the ground, they try the best to push us up. It doesn’t matter the pictures, it’s all about what it meant. Aaron is not only one of the best players in the world, he’s a true champion and that’s how they were when I got in love with this game 40 years ago.
“It’s not all about winning, and Aaron knows and his family teach him very very well. It’s not all about winning. It’s all about leaving a legacy. Aaron will be leaving a legacy around the world, not only because of his game, [but because of how] he behaves not only on the golf course but outside the golf course. A true gentleman.”
