The first time Tiger Woods visited Spain, he encountered a country in a state of shock. It was one hot weekend in July of 1997. There were 75 days left to go for the Ryder Cup at Valderrama and American captain, Tom Kite, had decided to visit the Sotogrande course with several other golfers. He had to break it in and get familiar with it before the grand battle against Europe.
The goal was to get mentally prepared for the big duel on Spanish grounds, and it happened to be the most appropriate dates for the Americans, seeing as how just a few days later was the Open Championship. There was no better way to take advantage of the trip to the Old Continent. Ryder and British all in one. Fate willed that they came to a country which was anxiously counting down the hours...
María Acacia López Bachiller, chief press officer of the European Tour in Spain for 45 years, remembers that weekend as if were yesterday. “Neither Kite nor the golfers knew what was happening. Every time they turned on the TV, they would see the same images; when they picked up the paper, the same covers. All of Spain was out on the streets and they asked us what was happening”. Tiger and company visited Spain just when a young Basque councilman, Miguel Ángel Blanco, was kidnapped and murdered. Almost every Spaniard knows what they were doing during those fateful hours. It's one of the most shocking moments in Spain's recent history, and both Woods and a majority of the American Ryder team were there to witness it firsthand.
Tiger played at Valderrama for the first time on July 13th, 1997, just a few hours after the threat was carried out and Miguel Ángel Blanco was murdered by his captors. It was a Sunday. He wore a black ribbon as a sign of respect. He and all the Americans.
Tiger Woods was a young, beaming and open golfer. He stopped to greet everyone, he made jokes, and he had a special connection with Mark O’Meara and Fred Couples. He was already a rising star, but he was still accessible. This story told by María Acacia shines light on how that Tiger Woods was: “The day prior to the competition, the golfers went out in pairs to talk to accredited journalists. Woods did so at the press center together with his good friend and support, Mark O’Meara. Just before that, it was Fred Couples' turn, who gave me a folded piece of paper for Tiger Woods. When he opened it, out of the corner of my eye, I could make out the joke Couples wrote: ‘I'm the blonde who's been watching you all morning. I'll be waiting for you in one hour next to the driving range’. Tiger folded it back up and put it in his pocket, a big smile spread across his face”.
One of the days during that Ryder Cup, Seve Ballesteros, the European captain, went a bit mad. Nothing to do with golf, nor the rain, and most definitely not with the course preparation, which taught the whole world a lesson that weekend. Seve's anger came from something much more trivial. The Americans had refused the invitation for the dinner they would be served in the hotel, and they decided to satisfy their appetites with pizza and hamburgers. The Spaniard from Cantabria could not fathom how they could do something like that with Spanish food. “They have no idea”, he said.
Things didn't go well for Woods in that Ryder. Seve's Europe won on an unforgettable Sunday at Valderrama, and one of the key points, precisely, was Constantino Rocca's win against Tiger. However, Tiger was able to make up for it two years later. He took home the victory in the WGC-American Express after winning in a playoff against Miguel Ángel Jiménez. But that Woods was very different from the Woods of 1997. “He wasn't accessible anymore. He had become an hieratical and inexpressive superstar...he didn't smile anymore. He showed up with six bodyguards, a coach, a psychologist and surrounded by assistants...He was 23 years old.”, said Maria Acacia.
But life is funny and the tides are always turning, often unexpectedly and, without a doubt, the Tiger Woods of today is much more similar to the version from 97 than the one from 99: more accessible, more bounce in his step and much more friendly. Who knows if we'll be seeing him sometime in the near future at the Real Club Valderrama, venue of the Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters.
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The Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters hosted by the Sergio García Foundation, an event in the European Tour’s Race to Dubai held at the Real Club Valderrama, is sponsored by Estrella Damm and the Consejería de Turismo, Regeneración, Justicia y Administración Local of the Junta de Andalucía, jointly funded by EU. This tournament is also supported by Diputación de Cádiz, Dubai Duty Free, Exterior Plus, La Reserva de Sotogrande, the Real Federación Andaluza de Golf, Rolex, Santander Private Banking y Shell. Callaway, Enterprise, Gadira, Grupo Raga, Isdin, Korporate Technologies Group, Maui Jim, the Hospital QuirónSalud Campo de Gibraltar, Varma and Volvo are official suppliers.
