Jaime Ortiz-Patiño has been made an Honorary Life Vice President of The European Tour at the BMW PGA Championship.
The Bolivian-born owner of one of The European Tour’s most iconic venues – the magnificent Valderrama on Spain’s southern coast – was honoured by Tour Chief Executive George O’Grady and two-time Masters Champion José Maria Olazábal at Wentworth Club as the BMW PGA Championship got underway.
It was Patiño’s vision that saw The Ryder Cup being played on European soil for the first time in 1997, when Seve Ballesteros’s European Team sealed a dramatic 14½ - 13½ over the USA to retain the Samuel Ryder Trophy.
That historic week was the culmination of a journey that began in 1956 and saw Patiño build one of the best courses in the world that would stage one of The European Tour’s most prestigious events, the season-ending Volvo Masters from 1988-1996, and from 2002-2008 and two World Golf Championships in 1999 and 2000.
Patiño’s passion for golf was ignited by an unlikely chain of events that began 54 years ago at the 1956 Italian Open. It was there that Patiño offered his services as a caddie to Ryder Cup player Dai Rees, who needed a replacement caddie for the final round. Instead of paying Patiño in cash, Rees told the South American: “I am The Ryder Cup Captain next year – I will send you a couple of tickets as your caddie fee.”
And so Patiño’s journey began. He made the trip to Lindrick in Yorkshire the following year and was blown away by the event. “I saw history being made that week because it was the first post war defeat of the Americans. The Ryder Cup has been my favourite event ever since because of the tension it generates – even then I could sense the pressure on the two Captains.”
It was some years later – the early 1980s – when Patiño was winding down his business career and taking more holidays in his home in Sotogrande, southern Spain that the plan to create the vision that would become Valderrama came to the fore.
With an increasing Membership and overcrowding issues at his home club of Sotogrande, Patiño and seven associates bought the neighbouring Los Aves course, a layout designed by Robert Trent Jones Snr.
Initially, the group of friends bought the club so that they could have somewhere private to play, but it wasn’t long before Patiño was hatching the plan that would see The Ryder Cup played on mainland Europe for the first time in history.
After buying out his fellow investors, Patiño re-employed Trent Jones to come back and (without a single financial constraint) finish what he had started. The great architect matched his employer’s ambition and sculpted the modern day masterpiece that is Valderrama. While Jones worked his magic, Patiño went to America to study agronomy with United States Golf Association experts so that he could be responsible for the maintenance of his course.
It did not take The European Tour long to come calling on Valderrama, and when they did they recognised the stunning quality of the venue and agreed to host the Volvo Masters there immediately.
By 1991, Patiño was being asked if he would consider bidding for The Ryder Cup. At first, he felt that the infrastructure (roads, hotels, parking facilities etc) was not good enough to host golf’s grandest team event but he soon changed his mind after travelling to the 1991 Ryder Cup at Kiawah Island.
“It was there that I realised that we could do it at Valderrama,” he said. “The spectators had to travel some distance to get to Kiawah and I felt that if they did it in America then they could travel from Marbella, where there were so many hotels, to Valderrama. I put in a bid for 1997 and it was accepted – that was a very proud moment.”
George O’Grady, Chief Executive of The European Tour, said: “Jaime Ortiz-Patiño has provided more than a few proud moments in the history of The European Tour. His vision and commitment to the game, and specifically our Tour through the Volvo Masters and, of course, The Ryder Cup, make him one of our strongest partners. We are delighted that he has accepted this Honorary Life Vice Presidency award – it is a fitting tribute to a great man.”
Olazábal, speaking on behalf of The European Tour Membership as he presented Patiño with his Honorary Life Vice President award, said: “The players of The European Tour are in your debt for what you have done for golf and for our Tour. You showed the Tour that we could make our events some of the best sporting occasions in the world and we have taken that on board and grown as a result of that. We congratulate you and thank you for all that you have done for us.”
