The goal for Pablo Larrazábal is simple: Finish among the top 15 and ties at the Final Stage of Qualifying School and earn his DP World Tour card back, just like he first did back in 2007.
Since coming through two qualifying stages almost two decades ago, the Spaniard has won nine times across 19 seasons before his unbroken run came to an end last month after finishing 167th on the Race to Dubai Rankings Delivered by DP World.
With that, Larrazábal - one of the DP World Tour's most experienced active players with 493 career starts - returns to the grind of six-day Final Stage with a renewed focus.
I'm not thinking that I'm more special than anyone else around here.
But despite his longevity and illustrious career on golf's global Tour, the 43-year-old is aware nothing will be handed to him and he will have to make it happen as 156 players battle it out over the Lakes and Hills courses at INFINITUM, in northeastern Spain, from Friday to next Wednesday.
"I'm here to get the job done this week," Larrazábal tells the DP World Tour during a practice round on Thursday.
"I'm not thinking that I'm more special than anyone else around here.
"We are 150 plus players that want to achieve our dreams and I'm one of them.
"Just as much as most of these guys, most of these kids, they want to achieve their dreams.
"I want to keep dreaming too, so we are not here in Salou for holidays.
"I have almost 500 events around here [on the DP World Tour], 19 years, but this is like coming back to where I started.
"I didn’t arrive on Tour with invites or with amateur status or anything. I just gained my way on to the DP World Tour through Q-School."
While it was at San Roque Golf Club that Larrazábal first earned his DP World Tour playing rights, INFINITUM in Tarragona provides fond memories.
It was here that he won the 2022 ISPS Handa Championship in Spain for his seventh DP World Tour title and first on home soil.
During what was a rich period of success that saw him win twice across back-to-back seasons in 2022 and 2023, Larrazábal carded a final-round 62 over the Lakes course to match the course record and claim a one-shot victory over Adrian Otaegui.
"Obviously, places like this that you succeed at in the past and bring you memories," he says.
"It brings you shots. I remember on this 10th hole that we are walking today. The pin was short right and on Sunday I missed the tee shot and found the right rough but I hit a perfect shot to 12 feet and I made that one.
"I have a lot of memories. It’s a golf course that I like. But here we are in a different scenario and trying to do as good as I can."
"If to win a golf tournament, it’s a marathon, this is like a triathlon.
Larrazábal has spoken candidly this season about the challenges he has faced on the course amid a loss of form that saw him miss nine cuts in a row from the Magical Kenya Open presented by absa in February through to the DS Automobiles 83° Open d'Italia in June.
Speaking after last month's Genesis Championship in South Korea, he attributed much of his struggles as a result of the pyschological impact of a three-putt on the final green to miss out on winning at the Bapco Energies Bahrain Championship last season.
But, after spending time back in his homeland over the past ten days, he is hoping the experience he and caddie Brendan McCartain - who helped José María Olazábal to win his second Masters title in 1999 - will prove influential as he navigates what is one of the toughest assignments in golf.
"This week we got, between Brendan and I, we got over 1500 tournaments around the DP World Tour. So we have experience enough and now it's my time to put my game on the course.
"It’s a mental challenge and also a challenge in terms of energy levels. Q-School, it’s a long road," he says.
"If to win a golf tournament, it’s a marathon, this is like a triathlon.
"You don't have to play great to go through, but you have to hang in there and not have any bad rounds.
"Just hang in there, play decent golf through six rounds and try to keep the dream alive."
