In addition to being an honor, presiding over a golf club like Valderrama is “an enormous responsibility”. Nuno Alberto de Brito e Cunha, Visconde de Pereira Machado, is well aware of this and that being at the helm of such a famous ship entails preserving, and even trying to improve, the magnificent and most famous golf course in Spain. A native of Cascais and an outstanding amateur player, he knows this club very well, as he has been a member since shortly after it was acquired by Jaime Ortiz-Patiño. He considers Jimmy – as he calls him – the alma mater of Valderrama and has great admiration for him.
-Howwere your first contacts with the world of golf?
-My father played golf very well, he was a scratch golfer too, and he was the only Portuguese who won the International Championships in Spain, in 1944 in Puerta de Hierro. So when we were little, instead of a teddy bear, they put a golf club in our crib. In Portugal there were very few golfers and courses at that time, there was the second oldest club on the continent, Porto, which was founded by the English, there was Estoril and little else. The tourist golf boom really started with Penina in the early 1960s.
-Whattitles did you win as an amateur?
-I won the Portuguese Championship several times, but, as they say, it was enough to have one eye, because the others were blind. I improved my game a lot when I went to Paris to continue my studies. There I met very good players, and in my club there were several members of the French national golf team. I was selected twice to play for the European team against the British Isles in the St. Andrews Trophy, in 1968 and 1972. Then I gave up golf for a while when I started working. Despite this, I was selected several times to represent Portugal in World and European championships. I would train a week before, go and do what I could.
–Where does your relationship with Valderrama come from?
-It goes back a long time. I remember we came to play a Spain-Portugal match at the Sotogrande course in the 60s because there was an annual match between the two countries. I came with my father and I liked the area very much. I have an English friend whose parents were practically one of the first to rent a house there and who used to invite my wife and me to spend a few days here in the summer. So I always had a big connection with Sotogrande, and then, when Jimmy Ortiz-Patiño finally bought this course with several people, the second year the club had shares I became a member here.
-Whathas it been like to become president of a club you have been a member of for so many years?
-I was very excited. I recognize that Valderrama is a very special club for a golfer, something extremely special, and I feel great admiration for what Jimmy Ortiz-Patiño has done here because really this course, as it is, would not have been done without him. He had the vision, the strength, the perseverance to do a great job. Times change and there comes a time when members have to be more involved in the day-to-day running of the club. That’s why it’s important to have elections and let whoever wants to run with a list of members, and we were fortunate to have the support of the majority.
–Could it be said that a new stage has begun for Valderrama?
-In my opinion, it is not a new stage. On the one hand, we have to respect and continue the work that the founder did here: that is essential. We have a great course and we must maintain it, take care of it and, if possible, which is very difficult, improve it. The clubhouse is beautiful, with its Andalusian style, which I love, and it is something that must also be preserved. The only new thing, in any case, is that we have to be aware that we are a members’ club and that the members have to be the privileged people at Valderrama. We are delighted to have green fees, because it is something that economically helps the club a lot, and to these people who visit us we have to give them a first class service, and that is something that Javier (Reviriego, the club’s general manager) is very attentive to. And we are also delighted to host professional tournaments, such as the Andalucía Masters, but always bearing in mind that we are a members’ club, that members are not here to take financial risks, and that is why this time we had to plan the tournament on a different basis. We are delighted to have this very strong relationship with the Junta de Andalucía and with the other sponsors, but they have to bear in mind that Valderrama is a members’ club and that the member does not play for fifteen days, nor can we sell green fees during that time.
-Are yousatisfied with how the second edition of the Andalucía Masters has turned out?
-It couldn’t have been better. It was fantastic, especially because we were lucky to see two Spaniards fighting for the title, when a Spaniard had never won at Valderrama, and both Sergio and Miguel Angel had been very close to victory on other occasions. So it was great that both disputed the title until the last hole. That duel between the two was for us the dream outcome.
–Will the Andalucía Masters have continuity on this course?
-On the part of Valderrama, we are willing to do so. We will always maintain the course in the conditions that characterize it, at the forefront of the best in the world. Now, I don’t know about the future, whether the Board will continue with its sponsorship or not. Many things are happening in this country at the moment, but, if the Junta wants to make Valderrama the venue of the tournament, we will be delighted.
-Does thefact that Valderrama is a club with members of many different nationalities cause anydifficulties?
-None. This is a very special, unique, exclusive and international club with members of many nationalities. There is an important Spanish base, which is fantastic because this is a Spanish club, but we also have members from all over the world, from the United States, Korea, South Africa…. and most European countries are also represented. There is an important part of English, and also Dutch and German…. I like this, that it is a Spanish club open to the world.
Leave a Reply