Juan José Hidalgo is, in addition to being one of the most important Spanish businessmen of the last decades, a great golf enthusiast. The president of the Globalia holding company is enthusiastic about a tourism and residential megaproject in Estepona, a municipality where he holds the title of Adopted Son and where last year he acquired a golf course.
It was by chance that Hidalgo (Villanueva del Conde, Salamanca, 1941) bought Estepona Golf, as this course borders the huge estate where the businessman from Salamanca, through his company Grupo 1941, will develop the aforementioned complex.
We talked to him shortly before he went out to play, walking it, this beautiful course in Costa del Sol. Official handicap is “22 or 23”, he practices his hobby often and does not participate in competitions.
“I don’t play tournaments,” he says, “because I play to walk, I do it with friends and I don’t want fights. There are friends who play for money, but I don’t like that: I like to play a coffee or a few balls or a glove, things like that, but I have a good time, I love it.”
-How did your love of golf begin?
-A golf course was founded in Salamanca in 1988, built by some friends. I didn’t know what golf was, but I bought some shares and started practicing. In 1991 I went to Mallorca with the Air Europa company and there I continued playing more or less, always playing badly, because golf is very difficult. You make a good hole and it seems that you already know something, but in each stroke you have to do seven things at the same time, getting them all right and not missing any, because as soon as you miss one you don’t hit the ball well. It gets you hooked, and I’m hooked because it’s the only sport I do. I play every day I can because I walk and it gives me air, and this gives me life.
-Which stick do you feel most comfortable with?
-With the putter, on the green. I’m not a bad putter, I’m pretty regular. Then, the tee, and on the fairway, the 3-wood.
-Of the courses you have played, which one did you like the most?
-One that I partly did: Maioris. In Mallorca there was a project to build a golf course with other partners, a design by Olazábal. And in the end I made a few tweaks in my own way. There was (in the original design) a lot of distance between holes and I made a cut to reduce the distance between holes so that people could walk less. Today that course is an absolute success.
I believe that courses have to be designed according to the people who play them. For example, Estepona Golf is for me one of the best courses. It is not because it is mine -one of my companies bought it a year ago-, but because of the design.
Many of its holes overlook the sea and in summer everything is a breeze, and it is very difficult to find a course with the vegetation that there is here, with more than 1,500 palm trees and more than 2,000 olive trees… everything around each hole is a charm.
This is not a course for big competitions like Finca Cortesin or Valderrama, which are more professionalized, but a course for the average player, the player of an age, to enjoy golf without the course generating too much pressure. For me, this course is unique because it is very welcoming and fun hole by hole. The courses I like are not the most competitive ones, but the ones that are easier to play, where people waste less time, with easy tees, clean fairways, good grass, adequate greens and few obstacles so as not to waste the player’s time.
-Why did you acquire Estepona Golf?
-It was by chance. I bought 22 years ago the land known as the Nadal Inheritance, 1,500,000 square meters, to develop a large project. That project did not include golf, although it did include a large sports area. The golf course is a perfect fit for this property because they are adjacent to each other, and for this reason I bought it. So, adding the two plots of land together, there are about 2,300,000 square meters. That is why I bought it, and now I am very satisfied, especially because I thought the golf course was going to cost me money and, although we spent a lot of money to update it because it was not in the best conditions due to the pandemic, now we have an average of one hundred players a day and we are very happy. It is a very well prepared course and people like it very much, and they come back.
-What does this large development next to Estepona Golf consist of?
-There will be a large hotel, tourist apartments, a lake with an artificial beach, a residential area and a sports area, as well as large recording studios for television series and housing for all filming personnel. For the latter alone, 300,000 square meters have been earmarked. The sports area will occupy 400,000 square meters and will have soccer fields, tennis and paddle tennis courts, indoor facilities, etc. The estate has 1,500,000 square meters, and more than 300,000 square meters have already been approved, half for tourism and half for residential use.
-What investment and what are the planned execution times?
-The idea is to start this year, and full implementation could be a reality in four or five years. It is a very large investment, almost 1.2 billion euros.
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