Ryder Cup, World Cups, Volvo Masters, World Match Play World Cups, World Series, Spanish Open, Andalucia Masters, Seniors Match Play… Andalusia has been, since 1966, home to many of the best tournaments in the world. Nicklaus, Tiger, Faldo, Langer, Sergio, Jiménez, Montgomerie, Lyle, Woosnam, Harrington, Rose, Westwood and Poulter are just some of the stars who have triumphed in one of the more than 70 major professional tournaments played in this land for almost half a century.
Becoming one of the world’s leading golf tourism destinations is not the result of chance, nor is it due solely to the blessing of enjoying an exceptional climate and a wide range of golf courses, many of them of extraordinary quality. The visibility and consolidation of a tourist destination of this type also has a lot to do -and more and more in recent years- with its media projection, and this is achieved mainly by attracting major international golfers thanks to the hosting of important tournaments. Andalusia has been hosting prestigious professional competitions for almost half a century, many of which have attracted the best players in the world. Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Greg Norman, Seve, Tiger, Olazábal… the list would be almost endless. Ryder Cup, Amex World Championships, World Cups, Volvo Masters, Match Play World Cups, Spanish Open… Official tournaments of the European and North American Tours, the Senior and Challenge European Tour… The best golf shows in the world have been staged in Andalusia.
The Andalusian ‘dance’ of international tournaments was opened in 1966 by one of the best possible scenarios in our country: the Real Club de Golf de Sotogrande. It was on the occasion of the Spanish Open, which ended with the triumph of Roberto de Vicenzo. He beat the Englishman Bernard Hunt with 279 strokes. The great Argentine player was a great figure at that time, and his immense sporting stature was crowned the following year when, at the age of 44, he became the oldest player to win the British Open, and to do so after an exciting duel with none other than Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player.
These two legendary players -the Golden Bear and the Black Knight- faced each other in another duel also played on Andalusian soil a few years later, in the 1973 World Cup at Las Brisas, a magnificent course designed by the American Robert Trent Jones senior. This Marbella course had hosted the Spanish Open in 1970, won by Ángel Gallardo, now vice-president of the European Tour, who beat the Englishman Neil Coles. In that Open, the best amateur was José Gancedo, who would later become one of Spain’s great golf course designers.
Returning to the duel between Nicklaus and Player at Las Brisas, the American, who teamed up with Johnny Miller, finally won the day. The Americans beat South Africans Player and Hugh Baiocchi by two strokes (558-560). The individual champion of that World Cup was Miller, with 277 strokes.
It would be six years before Andalusia hosted another international professional competition, again the Spanish Open, this time at the Torrequebrada course in Benalmádena, designed by Gancedo. This tournament was already part of the European Tour, which had been set up the previous year and which had been inaugurated precisely with the Spanish Open, at the Pals Golf Club (Gerona), with a victory by Antonio Garrido, who thus became the first winner of the Tour.
In Torrequebrada in 1979, with democracy recovered in Spain, the South African Dale Hayes won. He pocketed the 8,104 euros of the victory (then its equivalence in pesetas) of the 48,593 that the tournament distributed in prizes. This prize money was a big increase with respect to the previous year’s Spanish Open, since Garrido had only received the equivalent of 2,000 euros (out of a prize fund of 14,000).
The Spanish Open, the international professional tournament most often played in Andalusia (10) after the Volvo Masters (21), returned to this region in 1983 and 1987, in both cases to Las Brisas. The winner in 83 was the Irishman Eamonn Darcy, who beat Manuel Piñero by a single stroke, and in 87 Nick Faldo won, two strokes ahead of Seve and Hugh Baiocchi.
In 1988, with the creation of the Volvo Masters, a course that from the very first moment would give much to talk about jumped into the international limelight: Valderrama. The course designed by Robert Trent Jones senior had been acquired years before by Jaime Ortiz Patiño, one of the people who did most for the projection of golf in Andalusia. The tournament was born with great ambition, since it was the one that put the end to the European Tour season, access was limited to only fifty players -the best classified in the list of earnings or Order of Merit-, it distributed a lot of money in prizes and could be decisive for the proclamation of the number one of the year, as it was in fact most of the times. The cocktail, with those ingredients, was explosive, and success was its natural consequence, with a Valderrama crowded with thousands of fans enjoying a formidable spectacle, which had its climax in the final duel between two of the greatest European players of all time: Faldo and Seve. The Englishman, who did not hold the title of Sir at the time, lifted the first Volvo Masters trophy thanks to his 284 strokes, two less than the Spaniard. Only the two of them managed to finish under par (-4 and -2) at the already fearsome Valderrama. Faldo pocketed 123,662 of the 492,366 euros that the tournament distributed in prizes. The third classified was another historic player, and another of the Europeans who have won a Grand Slam title, the Scotsman Sandy Lyle, who shot a total of 288 strokes.
The history of the most prolific tournament of the European Tour to be held in Andalusia began so brilliantly and it was not until its eleventh edition in 1999 in Montecastillo (Jerez) that the only Spanish champion of the Volvo Masters in its 21-year history would be crowned: Miguel Ángel Jiménez. That penultimate year of the 20th century was one of the best, sportingly speaking, for the talkative player from Malaga, who was a prophet in his own land and almost defeated Tiger Woods himself in the American Express World Championship at Valderrama. Jiménez, who months earlier that same year had won the Turespaña Masters at the Parador Málaga del Golf (formerly Club de Campo de Málaga), only succumbed to the world number one in the play-off. Miguel Ángel had eleven top-10 finishes that season, including the two aforementioned victories and two second places. He finished the season in fourth place on the European Tour earnings list, with a total of 1,148,290 euros. His best Grand Slam performance that year was tenth at the US PGA Championship.
Jimenez was the only Spaniard to win the Volvo Masters, but there were other compatriots who were very close to victory in that prestigious tournament, especially Sergio Garcia, who came second in 2004 at Valderrama after losing in the play-off to Englishman Ian Poulter, and the following year, also second, this time two strokes behind the winner, Irishman Paul McIngley. Although it was not in that tournament, Valderrama finally surrendered at the feet of the Spaniard with a victory, in the 2011 Andalucía Masters, the scene of a great Hispanic duel until the last hole between Sergio and Jiménez, who lost by one stroke. Another Spaniard who came very close to winning the Volvo Masters was Carlos Rodiles, who succumbed in the final playoff to Sweden’s Fredrik Jacobson in 2003 at Valderrama.
And if the Volvo Masters was a very important milestone for golf in Andalusia, the 1997 Ryder Cup was the summum. Thanks to Jaime Ortiz-Patiño, Spain became the first European venue outside the British Isles to host a Ryder Cup. Valderrama was shown as never before to the world and Seve captained Europe to victory. Tom Kite’s squad, with the likes of Tiger Woods, Fred Couples, Phil Mickelson, Mark O’Meara and Justin Leonard, lost by a single point to a team that included, among others, José María Olazábal, Bernhard Langer, Nick Faldo, Colin Montgomerie and Darren Clarke.
In the more than 70 tournaments of the European Tour, including the finals of the Qualifying School to obtain the Tour card, there have only been six Spanish victories: Gallardo, Jiménez (2), Carlos Rodiles (2006 Qualifying School at San Roque Club), Álvaro Quirós (2010 Spanish Open at the Real Club de Golf de Sevilla) and García. In second places we have been more prolific, with fourteen individual places and one team place (2004 World Cup at the RCG of Seville, won by England). Seve is at the top of this ranking of runners-up, with three second places: Spanish Open 1987, Volvo Masters 1988 and Volvo Masters 1994. García and Jiménez each have two second places, which would be three if the 2004 World Cup is taken into account, since both were Spain’s representatives. Manuel Piñero, Olazábal, Miguel Ángel Martín, Carlos Rodiles, Ignacio Garrido, Alejandro Cañizares, Pablo Larrázabal and Tania Elósegui complete the list of luxury supporting players in the major tournaments played in Andalusia.
In contrast to the overwhelming presence of men’s competitions, only three of the Ladies European Tour (LET) have been played in the region. The first was played in Los Naranjos in 1988 and was the Marbella Ladies Open, the first LET tournament in Spain. It was won by the South African Laurette Maritz, who won with 283 strokes. In both cases the Ladies Spanish Open. In 2010 the Open de España Femenino was held at the Flamingos course and was won by a legendary golfer on the international scene, the Englishwoman Laura Davies; while the Open de España in 2011 was held at La Quinta and was won by the Englishwoman Melissa Reid, with Elósegui sharing second place with two other players.
The European Senior Tour has had a greater presence in Andalusia, with its epicenter again on the Costa del Sol. The first host was, in 2002, Flamingos Golf, with the Seniors Match Play, won by the Jamaican Delroy Cambridge. In 2004, the resort where Michelle Obama and one of her daughters stayed would repeat the tournament, and this time the triumph went to the Englishman Carl Mason. After a four-year hiatus, in 2009 the European Senior Tour returned to Andalusia, thanks above all to the support of the Benahavís Town Hall, the second municipality on the Costa del Sol in terms of number of golf courses, after its neighbor Marbella. The Benahavís Senior Masters was played at La Quinta and ended with a victory for Carl Mason, who won in the playoff against Gordon Brand junior. This tournament would be contested again on the same course the following three years, and Mason scored one of the victories.
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