“THE MAIN PROBLEM OF THE PROFESSIONALS IS THAT THERE IS NO SPONSORSHIP MONEY, NEITHER FOR THEM NOR FOR TOURNAMENTS.”
Born in Malaga, 44 years old, father of two children, handicap 4, economist with an office in Marbella, he began his relationship with the RFGA in 2006 when he passed some exams as a referee. Pablo Mansilla’s interest in refereeing arose when he started to discuss a lot and in a very funny way about golf rules in internet forums.
-What are the functions of the President of the Technical Committee of Professionals and Sports Director of the RFGA?
-As president of the Committee, I try to ensure that professionals have their space within the Federation, basically in three aspects: one is to help new professionals in the competition, another is the Andalusian Professionals Championship, which today is not played as such but as Andalusian Alps and we have been holding it for four years now, and a third aspect, which we try to implement together with the APG, is the training of professionals.
The sports director is an idea that comes from the Spanish Federation. Formerly the sports director of the Federation was a person hired to direct the tournaments that belonged to his committee. At a certain moment, the Federation decided that the tournaments, similar to what happens in the European Tour or the Challenge Tour, should be run by people with a refereeing profile, people with knowledge of rules, IT and administration and organization of tournaments. And that is why it has been transferred to Andaluza.
-What are the main problems affecting Andalusian professionals?
-The main one is that there is no sponsorship money, neither for them nor for tournaments. The European Tour itself has dropped from seven events we had in Spain to one. But that is the problem of the competition professionals, who are a minority. Most of the professionals are dedicated to teaching other players to play golf and they contribute in a very important way to the development of golf in Spain, because if they did not exist and if they did not encourage the practice of golf, there would be many fewer golfers. But it is true that those who have more public projection are the competition professionals. The problem is that you have to be very good to succeed, because basically there is no longer a Spanish professional circuit, it has disappeared. There is no longer the support that used to be given by firms such as Peugeot, Oki or Loewe, and now there is only a European professional circuit with its three levels: European, Challenge and Alps. We are integrated in the Alps Tour, but there are very few tournaments in Spain, only three. The problem is that the economic endowment is scarce and you can’t live on that, although it does help you to gain experience. But for that you need money. To be a member of the Alps you have to play at least six competitions a year in four different countries. As there are three tournaments in Spain, you also have to play in France or Italy, and that costs a lot of money. The prize is that you get access to the Challenge Tour if you finish in the top five at the end of the season.
-How many professional golfers are there at present in Andalusia?
-There may be around 280 golf professionals. There are far fewer players who really want to dedicate themselves to competition, between 25 and 30.
-In your years as a referee, have you ever had an altercation with a player because of the rules or have good manners always prevailed?
-The truth is that everyone has behaved correctly. I have never had any confrontation in my work as a referee.
-What is the most unfamiliar rule to the average player, and what do they usually miss the most?
-I think the problem with the Spanish player is that almost all of them have a basic misconception. In the rules of golf there is a fundamental principle that says that you have to play the ball as it rests, as you find it. In the modern player, and in the Spanish player in particular, this is less and less understood. Playing the ball as it rests, that is, not touching the ball from the moment you tee off until you finish the hole, has not really taken hold. It is true that there are many exceptions, since you can drop a ball because you have a relief, because the course is in bad conditions and we are placing the ball, but that has made them begin to not understand that the fundamental principle is that the ball is not touched. And when you touch the ball because you are entitled to relief, you do not touch it with enough respect and pretend to benefit from it, when the rules are there to benefit you, but not so much.
-You also have federative responsibilities on pitch and putt. In Andalusia, unlike other communities, especially Catalonia, pitch and putt is not very widespread. What future do you foresee for this type of course?
I think pitch and putt is our future, because one of the problems in golf is the time it takes to play an 18-hole course and the facilities you need. Pitch and putt needs much smaller facilities and it takes much less time to play, and it’s also a lot of fun because it’s much easier to make birdies than on a long course.
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