{"id":7324,"date":"2013-01-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-04T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.golfinspain.es.local\/b\/2013\/01\/05\/final-adios-to-a-golf-visionary\/"},"modified":"2019-11-07T11:01:42","modified_gmt":"2019-11-07T10:01:42","slug":"final-adios-to-a-golf-visionary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/2013\/01\/final-adios-to-a-golf-visionary\/","title":{"rendered":"Final Adios to a Golf Visionary"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Olaz\u00e1bal, Jaime Ortiz-Pati\u00f1o, George O&#8217;Grady and \u00c1ngel Gallardo (Photo: Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

It was July 1990, the British Open was being played at St. Andrews, and an earlier (and less bald) incarnation of OzinSpain was sipping a Scotch in the downstairs clubhouse lounge area set aside for press and players that week. (Those were the good old days when press and players cheerfully mingled \u2013 some even bought us drinks!)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mid-afternoon, Jaime Ortiz-Pati\u00f1o walked in, espied yours truly (we had first met in 1985 when OzinSpain and Spain-based US journalist Charlie Beck exclusively broke the news, in Costa Golf magazine, about Jimmy\u2019s purchase of and ambitious plans for Las Aves, later to become Valderrama), joined our group in front of one of the TV sets and ordered a vodka and tonic (if memory serves me correctly).<\/p>\n

Some time, and various additional drinks, later R&A secretary Michael Bonallack poked his head through the door, noticed the Valderrama president, and moved over to recriminate him \u2013 gently.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, Jimmy, that as a member (\u201coverseas\u201d in his case) you\u2019re not supposed to be in here.\u201d \u201cNo, I didn\u2019t,\u201d he replied, remaining seated and returning his gaze to the TV set as Nick Faldo headed inexorably to his third Open victory,<\/p>\n

Bonallack grinned sheepishly and left. Jaime remained in the press lounge long enough to finish his drink before generously picking up the by-now-substantial bar tab, bidding a warm farewell and heading off to wherever R&A members were supposed to be.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Valderrama\u2019s iconic 17th (Photo: Golffoto.es)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Apart from highlighting the absurdity of the R&A\u2019s \u201crules\u201d (at least back in the \u201890s), this anecdote is just one example of how Jaime Ortiz-Pati\u00f1o endeared himself to the press over the two decades<\/a> that Valderrama was in the international spotlight. He might have been a self-described \u201cdictator\u201d when it came to Valderrama but this friend and golfing partner of royalty (Prince Andrew) and world leaders (George Bush \u2013 the smarter senior one) was just as comfortable in the company of journalists. And the affection and respect was mutual.<\/p>\n

The announcement of his death, in Marbella on 3 January, aged 82, has prompted reams of richly deserved tributes<\/a>. He truly was inimitable, a passionate lover and student of the game who did it his way\u2026 a pioneer and indisputably key figure in the global promotion and development of the 21st century \u201cCosta del Golf\u201d. Golf in Sotogrande, Andaluc\u00eda and Spain is incalculably poorer for his sad parting.<\/p>\n

The Valderrama Story<\/a><\/p>\n


\nOriginal post<\/a> reproduced with permission from ozinspain.com
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Olaz\u00e1bal, Jaime Ortiz-Pati\u00f1o, George O&#8217;Grady and \u00c1ngel Gallardo (Photo: Getty Images) It was July 1990, the British Open was being played at St. Andrews, and an earlier (and less bald) incarnation of OzinSpain was sipping a Scotch in the downstairs clubhouse lounge area set aside for press and players that week. (Those were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mbp_gutenberg_autopost":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[80,553,585,586],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-golf-clubs","category-int","category-facebook"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7324\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}