THE MALAGUEÑO CLUB OBTAINS THE TITLE OF ROYAL AWARDED BY THE HOUSE OF HIS MAJESTY THE KING
There are courses like the Guadalhorce course in Malaga to which the title of “Real” fits like a glove. Not only for the magnificent 18-hole course that supports it, but also for the splendid clubhouse that crowns it, a magnificent Andalusian-style mansion built at the end of the 18th century.
It was in 1988 when a group of enthusiastic and far-sighted Malagueños decided to found Guadalhorce. Subsequently a group of Finns joined the Malagueños in order to participate in the great adventure of creating a golf club that, with the passage of time, has become the most characteristic of Malaga. The course was inaugurated in 1990 with a design by the Finnish Kosti Huronen, and the great golfer from Malaga, Miguel Angel Jimenez, redesigned the course a few years ago.
For Guadalhorce, obtaining the title of Royal Club is an objective that was set by those responsible for the club from the very foundation of the club. “The first honorary president was Don Juan de Borbón,” recalls the club’s director, Salvador Álvarez. “When he was still in Estoril,” he adds, “the constituent Board of Directors went to see him and he accepted the title”. Once the club had completed 25 years of existence, an indispensable requirement to apply for the title, Guadalhorce processed the request and it was only recently that it was finally granted the title of Royal Golf Club.
-What has it meant for the club to have obtained the title of Royal?
-We are delighted with this title, which is above all affective for the members and which, on the other hand, of course also gives the club a special cachet. The English public, for example, who are very used to the Royal theme, notice it, and for us it is a real honor to put the word Royal and the crown in our logo. It’s been a lot of hard work in terms of paperwork, but it’s an honor to have achieved it and we’re going to wear it with a lot of pride.
-Apart from its course and clubhouse, the Real Guadalhorce Club de Golf is well known for its educational aspect….
-It has become a very important center within the national teaching. On the one hand, there is the IH Academy (Iván Hurtado), which has this one in Gualhorce and another one in the Parador, which is doing a great job. It has all kinds of equipment, machinery, fitting to test golf clubs, repair, trackman… everything.
We are also the headquarters of the UGPM (University Golf Program Málaga), directed by Javier Martín-Montalvo, a member of the club for many years. It started with four students and today it is a reference. To get an idea, last year we played an interclub with the University of Saint Andrew, and the trophy was a replica of the Guadalhorce clubhouse farmhouse, which stayed at Saint Andrew’s because they won.
Alvarez considers “a great initiative for Malaga” what he calls the “American-style philosophy” whereby students study at the university and spend their free study hours playing golf, providing them with transportation between the university and the golf club. “The students come with low handicaps and leave with very low handicaps because they train a lot at the IH Academy,” says the director of the Real Guadalhorce Golf Club.
The UGPM holds some classes, such as Spanish classes for its foreign students, at the clubhouse.
In addition to this teaching facet focused on the IH Academy, for two years this club has been the center of the training courses of the Spanish Association of Golf Managers. Some online classrooms have been set up to teach the long training courses, which are specifically golf course management and administration, course maintenance or greenkeeper assistant, and operations courses, “and now we may possibly start specialized mechanics applied to golf and some other courses,” says Álvarez.
“The projects presented by the students are excellent,” he adds, “and the teachers we have provide great training. We bring in managers from all over Spain with great experience and we are fortunate to have people like Javier Reviriego (general manager of Valderrama) teaching classes.”
The director of the club, who has been teaching for twenty-one years, says he is “very satisfied” with how these courses are being taught and what the results are. “Here we have kids with low handicaps and also professionals, such as Jordi García del Moral or Ivo Ginés, who want to be prepared for the future”.
Álvarez welcomes the fact that golf course managers from all over Spain come to this club in Malaga thanks to the AEGG courses and that UGPM brings “very relevant people from the golf world, even at an international level”.
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