Valderrama, Spain’s most internationally renowned course, continues to improve in its constant search for excellence. Its president, Nuno Alberto de Brito e Cunha, Visconde de Pereira Machado, took the reins of the club in 2011 and, with his Board of Directors and General Manager, agreed on a plan to upgrade the course that began two years ago and will be completed next summer. The work affects both visible areas and infrastructures hidden from the eyes of the players. The course, which is almost thirty years old, looks spectacular.
At the beginning of August, a new practice area was opened, annexed to the driving range, designed by Kyle Phillips, with the aim of becoming one of the best in Europe, not so much for its size -it has almost 9,000 square meters-, but for the variety of shots that can be hit: downhill, uphill, from the rough, from the fairway, from the bunker (there are three of them)? When there is a tournament, this new area will be a great incentive for the professionals when training.
Next summer, a global improvement of the practice fairway will be undertaken, with the installation of target greens and a total change of the ball striking area.
Another of the actions contemplated in this investment plan concerns the tees of the course. They are all being leveled and teed with the Agrostis variety of grass, which is the same as the one that carpets the greens. This is something very uncommon in a golf course, but the club’s management understood that in order to raise the level of the course it was necessary to have this type of tees, perfectly leveled and with the new grass, which is cut in the same way as the green, with manual machines.
During this summer another important work has been carried out: the renovation of the entire irrigation system on the second nine holes (the first nine will be done next summer). New pipes, sprinklers, satellites, central computer, software…, the latest technology to optimize the use of water and present the course in the best possible way, have been installed.
The characteristic cork oak grove at Valderrama has also undergone intense improvement work. A major pruning has been carried out and its effects have been very noticeable in the rough, whose quality has improved notably because it now receives much more light. In addition, some strategic trees that had grown too much and made the game more and more difficult have been pruned so that the course does not have added difficulties and is fair to the player.
All buggy paths have also been renovated, unifying their appearance and improving their conditions.
SATISFACTION
A native of the beautiful Portuguese town of Cascais and an outstanding amateur player, Visconde de Pereira Machado is very satisfied with the actions being carried out on the course and the situation of the club he presides.
-You have already completed three years at the helm of Valderrama Golf Club. What is your assessment of this period of your mandate?
The balance is positive because things have been going extremely well; we have increased the number of members, financially the club is in very good shape, it is a very democratic board, all the members are businessmen with proven experience and a successful resume, and we have a great vice-president treasurer, Juan Carlos Garay, who has done a great financial job… the club is doing very well.
-What is the performance or change that you would highlight the most in this time?
-All changes are difficult. We inherited a fantastic club, a fantastic course, but it had its problems because over a long period of time there are always vicissitudes that appear on a day-to-day basis. What we did was to use consensus, and when you enter a place with a new perspective it is easier to see the mistakes, or rather the gaps, that the club might have had. One of the ‘problems’ is that this club has a memorable history, because there are few clubs in the world that have a history like Valderrama’s in terms of tournaments, with the Ryder Cup, the American Express World Championships, the Volvo Masters, but it was also a club with infrastructure that was a bit old, with the clubhouse in need of some TLC. And the courses need a renovation as time goes by because the original design changes. The greens get smaller, the trees grow enormously. A golf course is a living thing, and that is why we have to accompany that development and try to ensure that the course always reflects the original idea of the designer, in this case the great Robert Trent Jones. What we have done is to modernize but always respecting the original design.
-Why did you choose Kyle Phillips to design the new practice area?
-We hired him to do that and for the field improvements because he worked with Robert Trent Jones and that is for us a guarantee and a continuity of his work.
-Another novelty is the one that affects the denomination of the Valderrama Golf Club, since they have been granted the title of Real…
-Yes, His Majesty Don Juan Carlos granted us this great honor shortly before his abdication. For us it is a source of great pride and satisfaction. I played golf with him when we were young, and his father was also a great fan.
-Another award for Valderrama has been the Plaque of Merit in Golf awarded by the Spanish Golf Federation….
-For us it is also a great honor and I am very grateful to Gonzaga Escauriaza and his Board of Directors, but I really have to confess that I was a little surprised because I thought we already had it, for all that this club has done, with its great championships, for Spanish golf.
-We miss the big tournaments at Valderrama. Will we see them again in the near future?
-I think this course deserves a big tournament. We have had a bump with the economic situation, and I perfectly understand that for the main sponsor of the Andalucía Masters, which was the Junta de Andalucía, with the times we are living in, it was very, very difficult to maintain that tournament. Fortunately, it can be seen that things are improving in Spain, as shown by the macroeconomic indicators, and I believe that this country will once again host a great tournament, and I hope it will be played here. We are doing what we can for it. In the meantime we have not a big tournament but a very interesting competition in October with Heineken, a two-day pro-am with partners and some special guests. The best players in the world are not coming, but players from the European Tour, Challenge and Senior Tour are coming.
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