“We are going to make a different Open de España Femenino.”
The Real Club de Golf Guadalmina is already dressing up in its best clothes to host the Andalucía Costa del Sol Open de España Femenino on its South Course from September 21 to 24, a European Tour event that will bring together a large group of golfers of the highest international level.
The managing director of the prestigious Marbella club, Ignacio del Cuvillo, talks in this interview about how the preparations are going and the novelties of this edition of the tournament, which will be very special because Azaraha Muñoz, honorary member of the RCG Guadalmina, will defend the title. “Our club welcomes the event with great enthusiasm and responsibility,” she says. “Obviously the organization of an international event with players from all over the world, the best in the European ranking, some American players of considerable relevance, entails some adaptation of the host venue.”
In that sense, he points out that the club has to transform itself in certain aspects, one of them being the parking lot. “Ours is adequate for the day-to-day running of the club, but not for hosting a tournament with a massive influx of spectators, and in order to provide that service and accommodate a sufficient number of cars we have obtained, thanks to a family that has given it to us, an adjacent plot of 160,000 square meters. We understand that between 3,000 and 5,000 cars could come”.
The plot is about 600 meters from the club and will be cleaned and marked by the City Council through the municipal services. From this parking lot, both the spectators of the tournament and those golfers who want to play in the North Course of the RCG Guadalmina, which on the days of the Open will remain open as usual, will be transferred to the clubhouse in a small electric train that will make the journey every five minutes.
In the recently remodeled parking lot of the club, there will be a special presence of a fleet of high-end courtesy cars specially arranged for the occasion by Volvo, sponsor of the Open de España Femenino. There will be fifteen cars -with their respective drivers- supplied by the Volvo dealer in Marbella, Vypsa. The vehicles will provide service for ten days to players, personalities and members of the organization.
“We count,” says Del Cuvillo, “almost certainly with another incentive, which for me as a golf fan is always something you like and that is the truck of the Ping European Tour. It will be parked in the parking lot of the club and will present products of that brand”.
-What can you tell us about the preparation of the field?
-We have undertaken important bunker remodeling works to be able to offer homogeneous and high quality bunkers. It was something that had already been demanded by the members and was a bit of a pending issue for us. This Spanish Open has shown that when a club is nominated to host a European Tour event, an important tournament, there are a series of sacrifices that are made but then the improvements revert to the member’s day-to-day life, such as the bunker renovation project. The member is already enjoying them, before the players of the Spanish Open.
We have acquired enough machinery to be able to present the course with the requirements of the European Tour. After the Spanish Open, we will continue to have that machinery, which again benefits the course and the member.
-Are there any other performances planned at the club on the occasion of the Spanish Open?
-Another of the transformations resulting from the tournament is that we have been forced to expand the clubhouse, but without building anything: we are planning to install a 350 square meter tent, fully equipped with flooring, platforms, air conditioning, etc., which will offer catering services to the 126 players, their corresponding caddies, the federation bodies, the referees, the organization, television, etc., etc., etc. This tent will be installed in the gardens of the club and for this purpose an esplanade of 400 square meters has been prepared. And taking advantage of the fact that there will be a massive influx of spectators, we have decided to make a different Open de España Femenino. For this we have created a village around the pool, an area for public relations, attention to the players, attention to the members, attention to the clients, to the fans, where commercial companies of the area can have the opportunity to present their products. We have eighteen tents and we estimate that all of them will be occupied by companies of the sector or first class services.
-What are your audience expectations?
If expectations are met, we would be talking about very important figures . The fact that it is played at the club where Azahara is an honorary member gives the event an additional attraction, so we think it will attract many players, many fans and even people who do not play but who are attracted by the person of a girl from here, from San Pedro Alcántara (urban center belonging to the municipality of Marbella) and want to come and see her. Just as, of course, I must not forget ‘our’ Noemi Jimenez, or the other Spanish players who have so much pull. All this is already causing that we have to prepare ourselves to properly host this type of event, for example with permanent medical service with two ambulances and two doctors at two specific points … All this is not something that is improvised.
Today, July 21, we are doing this interview and from a check list of approximately thirty pages we could say that we have already achieved 70 percent.
For the management of the public, we have signed a collaboration agreement with the City Council through which they will provide us with human resources, local police, civil protection volunteers, to be able to handle the large number of people who will attend the tournament.
A fundamental organizational aspect is related to digital communications. We have the support of Movistar, which both in the clubhouse and in the field itself provides us with fiber optic broadband and spectacular data transmission, which is what an event of this nature really requires for live television broadcasts. The images will reach more than 120 countries. Among the curious things, the installation of an 80-meter-high tower stands out.
-What media coverage will the tournament get?
-Television and general press coverage will be equally important, with the tournament expected to reach millions of golf fans around the world.
Media accredited for the tournament range from New Zealand to California, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, North Africa, South Africa, all of Europe, etc.
We are convinced that this Open de España is going to be a great success.
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