The Big Interview – Gonzaga Escauriaza

Gonzaga Escauriaza, President of the Royal Spanish Golf Federation, speaks to Sportindustry.biz about his country’s bid to host the Ryder Cup and why he thinks they have a strong chance of winning.

Could you explain the bidding process for the Ryder Cup?

We will present our bid with the 4 other countries (France, Netherlands, Portugal and Germany – as Sweden has pulled out) and inspectors from the Ryder Cup Committee will go to each country’s selected course from the mid-April to mid-May.

The inspectors visited us on the 13th-14th April in Spain, where we presented our bid and outlined our ambitions for the tournament for those two days, then the inspectors have a year to make final decision on the 30th April 2011.

I really think that the European Tour will have a very difficult final decision – we (the 5 candidates) all think that we fit the Ryder Cup’s expectations so we are very motivated because, if we win, we want to keep to the incredibly high standard that the previous Ryder Cup hosts have set.

We have 7 different golfing events in Spain during the year and it does get difficult to keep them going, so we thought we needed that extra push from hosting the Ryder Cup to really establish the game in Spain.

We are looking to build a golfing legacy that we think in this modern era that the Ryder Cup can provide us.
 
Our weakness can be the fact we had it just 13years ago in 1997, but we haven’t had it in what I would call the ‘modern era’ of golf as now, in terms of media interest it is far larger and we think in 2018 it could be even more of a commercial tournament, one so substantial that it could leave a large legacy.

How is commercial interest in Spanish golf at the moment? Do you expect the commercial interest to be large if the tournament is hosted in Spain?

Yes I think so, Spain is a country where golf used to be perceived as an elitist sport and we are trying to let people understand it is not that way any longer.

We have 350,000 players playing at golf clubs around the country, so we have to go in the direction that puts the game into society with the likes of football and basketball.

So the commercial companies are beginning to understand that the game is popular and our growth has been fantastic recently.

There are more and more businesses showing support, as well as the Royal Family and the general public community.

We have a base of commercial support, so we feel that we need the Ryder Cup to consolidate the interest of the companies that are already funding golf in Spain.

What is your unique selling point to get votes from the Ryder Cup Committee?

Well, we think our strong point is that there are 7 events a year in Spain that are already on the European Tour. Plus our patron is Severiano Ballesteros, he is vital to us as he is such a great ambassador for the game, he was the man he made it all possible for continental players be on the team. We also have another 9 professional players helping us and we think that this is significant.

We also conducted a survey to see what people would like at the Ryder Cup and they said a good climate, great entertainment close by and of course a wonderful golf course. We have all the infrastructure to make the event one of the best Ryder Cups ever, I think we tick all the right boxes.

Why have you chosen the Tres Cantos golf course?

Because it is a fantastic golf course that is 10 minutes from Madrid, it is close to the airport and there is frequent public transport to course, plus the access and parking are excellent.

It is a golf course with a great reputation, and after studying all the requirements needed to host such an event, it fits the bill perfectly in terms of size, geography, spectacular views and we think it would be fantastic.

Plus it ticks all the boxes that I previously mentioned as Madrid has a wonderful climate and great entertainment.

What benefits would hosting the 2018 Ryder Cup bring to golf in Spain?

It would first of all make the current promoters interested in keeping their tournaments running in the future which is crucial to us and the euro tour.

We also think that people would begin to really engage with the sport even more than they currently do. Our target is to reach the non-golfers – we want to make the sport non-elitist, and see it played at schools and universities. We would look to introduce driving ranges at universities and try to implement the sport as a school activity.

Our aim is to put golf as a top sport up there with football, so we want to introduce lessons to kids – the Ryder Cup will be essential to this and the legacy could see the sport become hugely popular in Spain.

Are there any Spanish golfers coming through the ranks who we could see being major players at the 2018 Ryder Cup?

I think so because Spain has such a decorative history in golf and we usually have a good player competing at the highest level at every tournament.

It is true that there is a larger number of people competing in the sport from Spain than ever before and there is a lot of media interest being shown in our younger, upcoming players and they are playing at a very high standard so we are very optimistic that we will have top players in 2018.

Who do you see as your main competitor to host the tournament?

I’m really not sure because none of us has disclosed all the details yet – Portugal hasn’t confirmed its venue yet either.

The French bid has got a golf course that has already been tested at such a high level and they only have the one European Tour event. Perhaps everyone is a big opponent for us, but we don’t really know all the details yet because not all of the announcements have been made.

Portugal is a less golfing country – but the touristic aspect of the game is crucial to who will win and all the countries have strong points in this area. Germany has got Bernhard Langer as an ambassador and it is a great country with good players so it’s incredibly difficult to put your finger on who can win.

It will be a very tight race.