Inaugurated in 2001, the Santa Clara Golf course in Marbella soon earned a well-deserved reputation for quality that positioned it in a privileged place among the wide range of golf courses on the Costa del Sol. Its design, its exquisite maintenance, its privileged location, its facilities, which include a magnificent driving range and a majestic clubhouse, and its customer service are some of the keys to its success.
Its managing director, Ignacio Apolinario, says the club is experiencing a good moment and predicts a better future.
-What distinguishes Santa Clara from other golf courses on the Costa del Sol?
Santa Clara has a well-deserved reputation for having the best maintained greens. This in itself is a good reason to come here. Secondly, the location of the course is important, because we are in a privileged place, a few hundred meters from the sea and five minutes from the center of Marbella, and finally there is the quality and service we provide to golfers. All the clients of Santa Clara value positively the effort we make and that is why they come back year after year, which indicates that they are happy and satisfied with the experience they live here.
-Could you briefly describe what this field is like?
-It is a par 71 parkland designed by Enrique Canales that is characterized because it has no rough and is a lot of fun. The golfer likes to make birdies and pars, and that is our objective, because if you make the course too complicated, the player gets frustrated and in the end does not enjoy it. The important thing is to have the course in very good condition. Obviously maintenance is fundamental, as well as offering the best quality/price ratio for the course to be a success. At Santa Clara we have always been committed to quality and I invite people to visit the course because it is in great condition.
-How has the year been for Santa Clara and what are the prospects?
-The prospects for this year are really very good. Spring has been very good, autumn is going to be very good, and the doubt will be, as always, in the summer (low golf season on the Costa del Sol). That is why what we are going to do is to launch offers, both twilight and early bird, to try to attract national tourism, which is the predominant one at that time of the year. In summer we are going to have again the Gold Cup week of competitions, which this year is going to be supported by Titleist, so the gifts are going to be quite attractive, and we believe it will attract players.
-In the summer there is a majority of Spanish players who come to Santa Clara, but what nationalities predominate in this field during the rest of the year?
-Historically it has been the British, the Irish, within the British Isles market, but lately, after the crisis, things are changing and right now we are receiving more Germans and Nordics. I think that the effort that the Costa del Sol Tourist Board is making to attract new markets is also important. We are talking about emerging markets like the Czech Republic, and it is important to also touch these markets that have not been so historical. Fortunately, the British are recovering from the recession, from the crisis, the exchange rate is favorable with respect to the pound, which encourages them to return, and it is already being noticed on the Costa del Sol. All the fields are growing and overcoming the crisis a little bit.
-Apart from green fees, do you have any kind of season tickets to play frequently at Santa Clara?
Yes, we have a very successful monthly subscription, which you can choose with or without buggy, and there is also a fifteen-day subscription. We also have packages of ten or twenty green fees, and we are also encouraging online bookings. I think the future of reservations in general is online reservations, and Santa Clara has made an important effort in this respect. Last year we introduced Yield Management as a formula for managing online bookings and the truth is that it has been a revulsive, because we have increased both the volume of bookings and income. Yield Management is the system used by airlines and hotels, which makes the price more or less expensive depending on the occupancy of the aircraft or hotel. In this way, we can compartmentalize the departures from the golf course at different times, and depending on the occupancy at that time, the price can vary with discounts of up to twenty percent, which is very interesting. We are promoting that the more in advance you book, the more discount you will get.
-How do you see the general situation of golf on the Costa del Sol, the leading golf tourism destination in Europe, and is there a clear recovery?
-It is recovering. We are seeing very positive occupancy figures at the general tourism level. It is also true that we are benefiting a lot from the problems in the Middle East and the Near East due to jihadism, and I believe that in this favorable situation we must continue to offer quality, provide good service and not make the same mistakes as in 2001, when we raised prices thinking that this was the goose that laid the golden eggs and in the end we damaged the destination.
Anyway, I continue with my crusade against the 21 percent VAT. I think that the benefits that the State obtains with the collection of this VAT does not compensate for all the destruction of employment that this increase has caused in the golf courses. Golf was a dynamic sector, a generator of employment, and this Government, unfortunately, has ruined it by raising VAT from 8 to 21 percent.
More information about Santa Clara Golf Marbella here.
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