One of the things they are most proud of at the prestigious Costa del Sol resort Finca Cortesín is their Jack Nicklaus Golf Academy. Its Director of Instruction, Ricardo Jiménez Eliaeson, uncovers in this interview some secrets about his life in golf and teaching.
Born Ricardo in Stockholm, Sweden, he moved to Spain when he was three years old and has been living here ever since. “I started playing golf in 1986 at Torrequebrada,” he recalls, “and, believe it or not, my first teacher was Miguel Angel Jimenez. I owe a lot to the Jimenez family and to Torrequebrada, because without their support in my youth I would never have played golf. golf. I played all kinds of sports in my youth, but when I tried golf I was immediately hooked. From the beginning, I understood that I could never master this fantastic game and that I wasn’t playing against other players, I was playing against the golf course, and I think that was one of the best lessons I got from Miguel Angel Jimenez.”
-When did you first know you had that “something” to compete in golf?
-This is one of those questions that is very difficult to answer but, in my case, I always knew I could be a very competitive player because I love competition. I consider myself a good competitor but, having said that, it is one thing to play among amateurs and quite another to play against professionals. I remember one tournament where I hit two consecutive drives into the left rough. In both situations, my ball was sunk in the rough and I had to use my Sw to try to leave me a distance of approximately 100 meters to the flag. On both shots, I left my ball given. That’s when I knew I could become a good player. Previously I always thought that missing the fairway was an immediate boguey.
-As the Director of Instruction at Jack Nicklaus Academy, how does this partnership help you in your teaching and the improvement of your students?
-I have always been fortunate to be surrounded by great teachers. Many of them were more technical teachers, while some were more sensation teachers or psychologists. I was also fortunate to have seen the best teachers in the world over the last 20 years and, together, they gave me a good understanding of the big picture.
Golf is not about teaching technique; it’s about teaching people. If you teach the person, you can help them improve their game, but if you teach only technique, it will be very difficult to get good players and improve their game. We are all different, we have different constitutions, we think differently, we understand differently, we learn differently, so we have to adapt to our students. Nicklaus Academies helped me to present a more simplified and understandable message to the students. In general, we teachers make golf too complicated and use terminology that doesn’t help, so I consider myself more of a coach who develops the student’s skills. If a student can improve their skills in all departments of the game, then I think they will be happier because they will improve their score. That is my passion, to make them better.
-What is the greatest joy you get from teaching golf?
-You probably won’t believe it, but the greatest joy I get from teaching is when you can get players to hit the ball like Tour players (by that, I mean the sound of the club hitting the ball first and the grass afterwards) and then they turn to me with a big smile on their face and say “What a shot!!!”.
-What is one thing you would like to teach your children about golf that can help them throughout their lives?
-Golf is like life: a long road with many obstacles along the way. You are going to fall many times and you have to learn to get up and keep walking. Take it one step at a time, learn to suffer, fight back. and enjoy the journey because that is when you will learn about yourself and your game and your life.
Tell us a story about your last non-golf related vacation.
-Since I was 20 years old, I always had the dream of going on vacation to the Black Forest in southern Germany. Last year, knowing that my children were growing up, we planned the trip to the Black Forest and the Austrian Alps so we could spend 10 days traveling by car and living together. It was a fantastic experience that I recommend to everyone. It was fantastic to be able to spend such nice moments with my wife and children, and we fell in love with the Black Forest and the Austrian landscapes.
Ricardo uncovers some secrets about his life in golf and teaching:
“I was a professional player for 25 years, I played mainly on the National Tour, the European Challenge Tour, and I also played tournaments on the European Tour. I was fortunate to play with many of the best players of the time. That was an incredible part of my life and I am very grateful to all my fellow professionals from whom I learned so much.”
“My only goal was to earn enough money to be able to play the next tournament, but there also came a time to think about starting a family and when that time came, of course, I realized that I had to find a more stable job. I opened a golf academy in Marbella which took off quickly and we had some success and I was lucky enough at that time to be able to combine teaching and competition.”
“In early 2006, I received a call from Javier Reviriego, Director of Golf for a new project called Finca Cortesin. I came, played the course and was offered a job that I simply could not refuse. The project was simply amazing! and the rest, as they say, is history. It’s 14 years at Finca Cortesín to which I am very grateful for the trust placed in me in all these years. Somehow, I prepared myself all my life to get this job. I am 100% convinced that training is a key factor to become a good teacher and when I was playing competitively, I spent all my time studying, attending seminars, observing the best instructors and preparing myself in different areas to become the best golf teacher possible”.
-The best advice you received from a Tour pro?
-The best advice I ever got was from my great Scottish teacher and friend Don Ross. I was a very technical player and was in the midst of a major playing crisis. It was so hard that I was thinking of quitting competitive golf. He was my teacher in the latter part of my amateur career and I never hit the ball and made as many good scores as that part of my life. Don came back to Spain after six years working abroad and called me and told me to come see him at Montecastillo. When he saw my swing and the way I was hitting the ball and performing on the course, I couldn’t believe it. I had lost my essence and resilience in the search for the perfect swing. He looked deep into my eyes and told me to stop thinking and just focus on hitting the ball to the target. I spent the next month with that one thought on the golf course and it really worked. I was the perfect example of a player who
had lost trying to achieve perfection.
-What exercises do you do to warm up?
-The main exercise I focus on is stretching. I’m a true believer that the more flexible you are, the longer you can play on time, especially as you get older. I also do functional exercises and strength exercises.
-Describe your golf game in four words.
-Re-si-len-cia.
-Which Tour player is your game most like?
-To all players who miss too many greens in regulation!
-What is your favorite memory of beating your fellow golf pros in a tournament?
-In 2003, I won a great tournament on the Spanish circuit where I beat Pablo Larrazabal on the last day. We played together in the last group on Sunday and I never in my life felt so much pressure on my forearms as when I had a one-meter putt to win the tournament. I stepped away from the ball, took a deep breath and went through the routine again and holed the putt. The job was done. I remember driving home and being very proud to have finished first out of 144 players who played that week, and that will never change. It was a great feeling.
-You’ve been a vital member of the Finca Cortesin team for 14 years. Tell us something the average golfer doesn’t know about the Finca Cortesin golf course?
-Finca Cortesin is an amazing golf course and I am still trying to learn how to play it. I love courses that require you to play every club in the bag and Finca Cortesin is one of them. From the tee you have to go long but precise and you have to learn to attack the flag, by that I mean, sometimes you have to play away from the flags if you don’t want to ruin the round. When you get to the green, you must be on the right side if you want to avoid making three putts, and if you miss the green, your short game must be accurate and creative. If you learn to play the course the way the designer wanted us to play, then it is possible to make results. If you really want to enjoy the round, forget about being aggressive and think about how you can put the ball in play and play to the widest part of the green. To do this, you must know the strengths of each hole and what its weaknesses are. Never try to play the weaknesses of your game against the strength of the hole.
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