28 years
MARÍA ACACIA LÓPEZ-BACHILLER Press Manager for the European Tour in Spain Images: Doro Archivo Grupo HCP
alongside Seve I have always said that I feel privileged: I started my golf career at the same time as Seve Ballesteros. The Spanish Open of 1974 at La Manga was our first European Tour competition. We became good friends and I was fortunate and privileged enough to share 28 years with him, accompanying him in countless unforgettable moments both on and off the golf courses.
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he first time Seve was in Sotogrande it was when I invited him over Easter in 1978. From 77 to 80 and from September to April, Ward Wallace (the Financiera Sotogrande marketing manager) asked me to work with him to take care of public relations and protocol; the rest of the year I worked with an English travel agency that was the first to focus on taking golfers around Europe to all the tournaments. I invited Seve, Manolo Piñero and Antonio Garrido to spend a few days in Sotogrande in preparation for the Augusta Masters and they were delighted to accept. They were here for five days and stayed at the ‘bottom course’ (Real Club de Golf Sotogrande) chalets. In the morning they trained alongside Juan Quirós and Juan Zumaquero or with Tony Jacklin, who had been given the task of promoting the ‘new course’, Las Aves, which later became Valderrama. At night I organised quiet and pleasant dinners with just a few peo-
ple so they would feel at ease, with Richard Denman, Ignacio Álvarez de Toledo, Harriet Högström, Amparo and Miguel Preysler and Corina Oppenheim always present. I remember a really fun night at Los Abanicos, the Hotel Tenis bar. Seve did not win that Masters, which went to his idol Gary Player; however, just a few days later he achieved his first United States title: the Greater Greensboro Open. He always acknowledged that the decision to spend those days in Sotogrande was a good one. His second visit was nine years later, when in December 87 he won the Spanish Championships held at RCG Sotogrande, and the next year he took part in the first ever Volvo Masters at Valderrama, a title that he fell just short of winning on that occasion and also in 94; if only he hadn’t had to take a drop that left him a stroke behind Langer. In 97 he returned to Valderrama as captain of the European Ryder Cup team and enjoyed one of the most exciting weeks of his career. Seve put all his passion into everything he did and if there was a tournament that thrilled him above all others it was the Ryder Cup. The Valderra-
LAÊREVIS TAÊD EÊS OTOGRANDEÊ/ÊH ISTORIAÊGRç FICAÊ |
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