“WE HAVE INCREASED THE NUMBER OF TOURNAMENTS BY 25%”.
The Seniors Committee of the Royal Andalusian Golf Federation (RFGA), chaired by Francisco Cervilla, has significantly increased its activity this year. It has also introduced a series of changes and improvements that will make this group, possibly the largest in the Federation, have more tournaments and better organized.
-What are the specific functions of the committee you chair?
-Fundamentally -but not only- we are in charge of organizing our circuit, which is made up of several tournaments, at least one for each Andalusian province. This year we have added three new competitions, one of them sponsored by the Costa del Sol Tourist Board and a match with the Community of Valencia. In total there are 25% more tournaments than last year. Also the participation in them has grown by 20%.
We also take care of other things; among them we have proposed to find a formula so that players over 70 years old or more can compete on equal terms in senior tournaments with those who are only 55 years old. We want to do this with the National Federation so that it is not only an Andalusian regulation but of the whole country or at least of the communities that wish it.
This year, the Senior Committee also has a foreigners’ committee, whose main objective is to bring together the communities of residents from different countries.
-How many federated seniors are there in Andalusia?
-We are more than 42% of the Andalusian licenses, so the specific weight of the group is considerable. I would also add that many clubs live from the activity of the seniors, who are the ones who have time to play, to be in the clubs and have their economic life solved.
-How many foreigners are on your committee?
-We are five people in total: the president, a national referee, a member from Seville, a British member and a Scandinavian member. In this way we offer 90 percent of the foreigners living in Andalusia the possibility of contacting us in their own language. The Committee represents, I believe, faithfully the senior players of our community.
CHANGES IN THE CIRCUIT
“I would like to respond, if I may,” adds Francisco Cervilla, “to some complaints that have reached us that we had few tournaments for the specific weight of the seniors. In this sense I have to point out that in addition to our tournaments we can also participate in many others organized by the Federation, we do not have to limit ourselves to the 13 that we do”.
“This year,” he continues, “we have introduced many changes in the circuit, among others we have changed the limits of the categories so that the lower handicaps can compete on equal terms with the higher ones and we have institutionalized two scratch prizes for ladies and gentlemen that will incentivize the best players.”
“We have also changed the classic awards cocktail party, which was meager and poor, to a formal seated meal. This will have to be subsidized by the Seniors Committee, but I think it’s worth the expense.”
“Another of the novelties”, he concludes, “introduced this year is the centralization of the inscriptions and the formation of the games in the Federation so that the clubs where we play are not the ones who take care of this. It will be done in a professional and aseptic way, and in this way we avoid suspicions about the formation of the groups”.
Leave a Reply