He is instantly recognizable by his unmistakable trademark: a simple, brightly colored cap. At the age of 38, Peter Gustafsson is temporarily retiring from top-level competition to devote himself to the marketing of a golf and travel website. However, he plans to return to feel the adrenaline of the tournaments and also sets a goal within the reach of very few professionals: the best circuit in the world, the United States, of course, the PGA Tour.
Although his brilliant 2005 season, in which he made his debut on the European Tour, achieved two second places and was on the verge of being named Rookie of the Year, is a long way off, the truth is that Gustafsson, a native of Orust, believes he can recover the good game of those times and that his name will once again be heard loudly in the always competitive world of golf.
Peter lives in Marbella, in the area of Nueva Andalucía, where the Golf Valley is located, with emblematic courses such as Aloha, Los Naranjos or Las Brisas, scene of two World Cups, the first of them, in 1973, won by Jack Nicklaus and Johnnie Miller against Gary Player and Jugh Baiocchi.
-When did you first come to the Costa del Sol?
-I came in 1997 with two friends to train and we stayed in Estepona. We became partners for a season at La Cañada when it only had nine holes. In ’99 I went to study in Texas, USA, but I was there for a short time, and in 2000 I returned to Spain. Here I could train in winter and I also liked Spain very much. I got a girlfriend and we stayed in Estepona until 2004, when I decided to settle here permanently. That year I won the European Tour Qualifying School at San Roque Club, and in 2005, on the same course, I lost the Spanish Open in a playoff against Peter Hanson, and here I am still here. When I come back from a trip and arrive at Malaga airport, I feel like I’m coming home. When I go to Sweden it’s a different feeling.
-What do you like most about the Costa del Sol?
-The weather, its multiculturalism, the atmosphere, the tranquility, you can do many things but life is relaxed… it’s a very good place to live. I’ve been here for almost twenty years and I’ve never seen a fight, whereas in Sweden, if you go out to bars, you find them every weekend.
-Do Swedes generally adapt well to this kind of life or is there a lot of contrast with your country?
-They have a very good life here, but I think many foreigners don’t adapt well because they don’t try to learn the language, the culture, the way of life, which is calmer here in the south than in other places in Spain like Madrid or Barcelona. Many foreigners think that things have to be like in Sweden or Germany.
-What do you think of the golf courses in Costa del Sol?
-There are some very, very good courses. Here for example in Nueva Andalucía you have Las Brisas, Aloha or Los Naranjos, but there are many other areas, like Sotogrande for example, with Valderrama, La Reserva, Sotogrande… Finca Cortesín is also another great course. And another very good one is the Parador de Malaga, where I haven’t played for nineteen years and I think it is one of the best layouts on the Costa del Sol.
-You started very well your career in the European Tour, with two second places (Open de España and European Masters) in your first season, but then things went wrong and you didn’t get good results. What has happened since then until today?
-In ’99 I started playing as a professional in Sweden on the Nordic Tour, but in 2001 I had problems with my sciatic nerve and was forced to stop playing for a while. In 2002 I started playing again, and playing well, but in 2003 and 2004 I narrowly missed out on the European Tour by just one place through the Challenge Tour. It was a funny story: my Swedish friend Mattias Eliasson was leading the tournament by two strokes with one hole to play, made double bogey and then lost in the playoff. I was thirteenth in the ranking and had a place (the first fifteen got it), but when he lost the playoff I was sixteenth and without a card.
-Apart from the European Tour, he has also played in other circuits…
-On the European Tour I played from 2005 to 2007 and then about half of 2008, and from 2009 until last year I played some tournaments. I also played on the Asian Tour and the Nationwide Tour (United States) and won on the Tour of the Americas in 2009 to have some money to play in the United States.
What are your short-term professional plans?
-I’m working with Golfbookingnow.com organizing the sales and marketing because, staying in golf, I want to do other things, something apart from the competition, and I think I need some time to regain motivation in my game because I’ve played so badly in the last two years. That’s why I also want to have something alternative to golf. Many players forget to have a work outlet, another plan, in case golf fails, and the truth is that I don’t want to give lessons in a club or something like that, I want to stay connected to golf, use all my contacts, but not as a player. I want to help young people, there are a lot of very good players but they don’t have someone to guide them properly, someone with the experience of competition.
So, do you find it difficult to return to high-level competition?
-Now I’m going to leave it for a while, but I’m sure I’ll try to come back; I don’t know when, but for sure, because my dream is to play in the United States. I am 38 years old and I have time ahead of me.
-If it is difficult to obtain the card to play the European Tour, it will be even more difficult to get a place in the United States Tour…
-It is difficult but not impossible. There is not that much difference between one and the other. If you look at the world ranking now, we have a lot of Europeans, with McIlroy as number one and Garcia in the top spots.
-Can we now consider Tiger as buried, sportingly speaking?
-I think he has lost his magic. He had something special, but now players don’t respect him like they used to. Tiger’s era has been incredible, but I think it’s over and I don’t think he’s going to play much more.
-Brightly colored hats have always been your trademark. Why did you start wearing them?
-Before playing the Challenge Tour I spent a week in Dallas training and as it was very hot I went to a store and bought a colorful hat. I played with it for four months and as it was dirty I bought others, and then, when I was already playing on the European Tour, I tried to change but people didn’t recognize me without the hat. I was at the Welsh Open and a guy in the audience said to me: “Where is your hat?”, and then I realized that I would have to keep wearing the hat until I die.
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