{"id":21154,"date":"2016-04-18T13:03:55","date_gmt":"2016-04-18T13:03:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/pinero-sergio-and-olazabal-analyze-the-impact-of-the-olympics\/"},"modified":"2016-04-18T13:03:55","modified_gmt":"2016-04-18T13:03:55","slug":"pinero-sergio-and-olazabal-analyze-the-impact-of-the-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/pinero-sergio-and-olazabal-analyze-the-impact-of-the-olympics\/","title":{"rendered":"Pi\u00f1ero, Sergio and Olaz\u00e1bal analyze the impact of the Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/span><\/span>Manuel Pi\u00f1ero, captain of the men’s Olympic golf team at the Rio 2016 Games, has declared at the La Reserva de Sotogrande club, in San Roque (C\u00e1diz), that this function would correspond first to the late Severiano Ballesteros and then to Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Olaz\u00e1bal, and that is why he considers himself “the substitute for the substitute”.<\/p>\n

“For me the real captain is Seve, for everything he meant to world and Spanish golf. Since he is no longer with us, his position should be for Chema, but his physical problems prevent him from being the captain. So I am the substitute for the substitute,” said Pi\u00f1ero in a meeting that included Sergio Garc\u00eda, Chema Olaz\u00e1bal and the captains of the national golf teams of Belgium, Denmark, Italy and Portugal that will participate in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.<\/p>\n

Pi\u00f1ero also placed his position at Olaz\u00e1bal’s disposal. “If Chema feels better and feels strong enough to be the captain, I will gladly hand over the captaincy to him. I would be willing to take care of the botijo,” he said. <\/p>\n

Olaz\u00e1bal clarified that the decision to resign for health reasons from the Olympic Games “is firm and there is no turning back”.<\/p>\n

“It was a very hard decision because the Olympic Games are very special and I would have been tremendously excited,” said the player from Guipuzcoa, a two-time Masters winner who suffers from a rheumatic disease.<\/p>\n

Pi\u00f1ero believes that the return of golf to the Olympic program after 112 years of absence is “cause for celebration” because it is “a great boost” for the sport. An opinion shared by Olaz\u00e1nal: “The Olympic Games are going to be a way for golf to reach places where it is not yet popular, and it will be very important for the new generations to get closer to the sport. I think we will reap the rewards in 15 or 20 years”. <\/p>\n

Pi\u00f1ero wants Seve Ballesteros to be present in Rio de Janeiro in some way: “We will think of something, but Seve will be there with us because we represent Spain, but also Ballesteros.” As to what his role will be in this summer’s Olympic Games, Pi\u00f1ero, 63, said that he will mainly try to ensure that the players representing Spain prepare themselves “as for another competition, that they do it as they do to face a major tournament”. <\/p>\n

Spain will be represented at Rio 2016 by two players according to the world rankings as of July 11. The best placed are Sergio Garcia from Castell\u00f3n (15th in the world) and Rafa Cabrera Bello from Gran Canaria (30th). “I am still a probable Olympian, but if I am there it will be an honor to represent my country. I’ve always been a big fan of the Games. Being an Olympian is a great opportunity and I’m very excited about it,” Garcia commented. <\/p>\n

Also present at the La Reserva event were Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Ca\u00f1izares, the CEO of Sotogrande S.A., Marc Topiol, and the president of international relations of the European Tour, George O’Grady.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Manuel Pi\u00f1ero, captain of the men’s Olympic golf team at the Rio 2016 Games, has declared at the La Reserva de Sotogrande club, in San Roque (C\u00e1diz), that this function would correspond first to the late Severiano Ballesteros and then to Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Olaz\u00e1bal, and that is why he considers himself “the substitute for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21154","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=21154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}