![\"\"](\"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/images\/Actualidad2016\/Parro%CC%81n%20OK.jpg\")
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He belongs to a family dynasty of golf professionals, and in his early years he was considered to be one of Spanish golf\u2019s most promising young stars.<\/p>\n
As an amateur, at the time, he had the lowest handicap on the continent. He competed on the Challenge Tour and European Tour but \u2013 he says \u2013 he possibly made the move too soon. Now, at 35, he has begun a new era after taking over as manager at Almerimar Golf Club. <\/p>\n
<\/strong><\/p>\n After having been a tour and teaching pro, how is this new experience shaping up?<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s very different to what I did before, but very enjoyable, because every day there is something distinctive to do, new problems to face and resolve\u2026 It\u2019s different but also really nice.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n You come from a family of golfers. Your father was a pioneer of golf teaching in Almer\u00eda, and your uncles and cousins are involved in the sport\u2026 <\/strong><\/p>\n There are 11 golf professionals in my family. My father began working in El Prat, in Barcelona, and in the mid-seventies he came to Almer\u00eda. He introduced two of my mother\u2019s cousins to the game, who are now at other clubs in the area, my two uncles, my cousins\u2026 <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Your father\u2019s influence, and that of the rest of your family, must have been decisive in introducing you into the world of golf: you were pre-destined\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes, because almost my whole family is dedicated to this. We also have golf shops, etc. As a child I saw it as a game, just some other children\u2019s fun, until I won a Spanish championship at 16 and I realised the sport could be something more serious for me. As a result of that win, they sent me to compete in European and world competitions, and I began looking at golf from a more professional and serious point of view, something that could determine and guide my future. Before then I hadn\u2019t even considered this. <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n As an amateur, you had one of the lowest handicaps in Spain, almost as low as Sergio Garcia\u2019s\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n At 17, I had the lowest handicap in Europe, +4.2. I believe Sergio at one stage had +5-something \u2013 but we didn\u2019t coincide. When I had that handicap he was already a professional. I\u2019m a couple of years younger. <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n How old were you when you turned pro?<\/strong><\/p>\n Eighteen \u2013 perhaps too young. I began competing on a national circuit, the Peugeot Tour, and that was when I had to make a key decision: study or play golf as a professional. Competing on that tour were such top players as Pep\u00edn (Jos\u00e9) Rivero, Juan Quir\u00f3s, etc., and I decided to harden my game as a player on that tour and see what happened. <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n So what happened?<\/strong><\/p>\n Well, I stayed with golf. One of those who most encouraged me to do so was Ricardo Jim\u00e9nez, currently the pro at Finca Cortes\u00edn and a great friend. He became my coach, the best I have had, and he prompted me to turn professional. He\u2019s the person who has had the most confidence in me during my life, and who has helped me most as a golfer. He was the one who encouraged me to join and enjoy the European Tour, who extracted the most out of me and who knew how to make me play at my best. I played one year on the Challenge Tour and then moved on to the main tour, perhaps too quickly. It\u2019s not good to do these things prematurely, and that was the negative aspect of that decision. I arrived with little experience and I took a tumble. <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In any event, you retain good memories of that time\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Certainly. I feel privileged to have been able to enjoy top competition, to have played at the best courses and to have shared tournaments and leisure moments with so many good players. <\/p>\n My best friend, with whom I shared a room on countless travels, was Rafa Cabrera-Bello. From 2006 to 2008, we did 80 per cent of our trips together. I also had a good relationship with \u00c1lvaro Quir\u00f3s, Manuel Quir\u00f3s, Carlos Rodiles, Gabriel Ca\u00f1izares, Alex Noren and Martin Kaymer. <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n What was the strongest part of your game?<\/strong><\/p>\n People always thought it was the driver, because I hit very long. I was quite spectacular with that club, but the problem is you also end up getting into a mess every now and again when you hit that kind of tee shot. I believe my strength was my attitude. It\u2019s true that I haven\u2019t been a winner: whenever I\u2019ve been on the verge of winning I\u2019ve become tentative and that hasn\u2019t helped me to win. However, I have been a real fighter and very positive, with a great ability to forget the bad shots and overcome the bad moments. I haven\u2019t been able to win but I consider myself to be a good competitor. <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n You are now beginning a new era in your golfing life as the manager of a prestigious club. Tell us about this course\u2026 <\/strong><\/p>\n The first 18 holes were inaugurated in 1975 and designed by Gary Player. It has always been a course with a very good reputation, highly respected at a national level. <\/p>\n It\u2019s a typical Player layout, with numerous palm trees, doglegs and lakes\u2026 It has two very spectacular par-threes with island greens. I think it\u2019s a super-attractive and enjoyable course. The best thing about it, I believe, is how versatile it is for any kind of player, of whatever ability. You can take on the course however you want to, playing aggressively or conservatively, and you\u2019re always going to enjoy it. <\/p>\n The expansion of the course at the turn of the century added some elements of playing difficulty and made it more varied. They built more lakes and lengthened it a bit, which made it more challenging. In general, it\u2019s a flat course, with very wide fairways, but you\u2019re never bored because each hole is different. <\/p>\n I would like to stress that Almerimar Golf is one of the few resorts in Andaluc\u00eda that has its own hotels, one set within the course and another nearby. We are also next to the sea and a major marina. <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" He belongs to a family dynasty of golf professionals, and in his early years he was considered to be one of Spanish golf\u2019s most promising young stars. As an amateur, at the time, he had the lowest handicap on the continent. He competed on the Challenge Tour and European Tour but \u2013 he says \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":17127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-destinations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/images_Actualidad2016_Almerimar-OK.jpg\")
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