VALDERRAMA VISIONARY JIMMY ORTIZ-PATINO DIES AT 82

FROM THE GOLFWEEK WEBSITE
Jaime Ortiz-Patino, who landed the Ryder Cup for continental Europe in 1997 at his Valderrama course, Sotogrande in south-east Spain, died yesterday (January 3) in a hospital in Marbella, according to the European Tour. He was 82. No cause of death was disclosed.
Patino, known as "Jimmy," the owner and honorary president at Valderrama, was a revered figure in Spanish golf. 
In addition to the Ryder Cup, the European Tour played 16 of its season-ending Volvo Masters, two World Golf Championship events and two Andalucia Masters tournaments at Valderrama. 
Over the years, a who's-who of golf – Nick Faldo, Sergio Garcia, Bernhard Langer, Sandy Lyle, Graeme McDowell, Colin Montgomerie, Ian Poulter, Justin Rose and Tiger Woods among them – won on the Robert Trent Jones-designed course, attesting to the greatest of the layout and Patino, its visionary.
“His foresight and dedication to the game through the Volvo Masters and, of course, The Ryder Cup, was legendary, as was his dedication to excellence in terms of the preparation of a golf course," said George O'Grady, chief executive of the European Tour. "Nobody had seen a golf course presented the way Valderrama was. He raised the bar in that respect. He was also a gentleman and he will be sadly missed.”
Spaniard Angel Gallardo, the tour's vice chairman and a former touring pro, called Patino "the soul of golf in Europe."
“He has done a lot not only for Spanish golf but also for European golf,” Gallardo said.
Countryman Jose Maria Olazabal said: “He was a man with a strong character who did not doubt when he wanted to get something done. He gave his all in everything he did; his full effort and energy to achieve his goals.
“Valderrama is his masterpiece, his legacy. He wanted to make it a very special place, a unique place, and he did it. He put Valderrama and that part of Andalucia on the golfing map. Through the Volvo Masters, the American Express Championship and The Ryder Cup, he presented Andalucia to the whole world as a great golfing destination.
“At the 1997 Ryder Cup he was close to the team, and he used to talk a lot with Seve (Ballesteros, the late Spanish star). He wanted every single detail to be precise, and he tried so hard to make everything perfect.
"He even used to get out of bed at 4:30 in the morning to work with the maintenance team and help cut the greens! Not many people would have done that, but it perfectly showed his character. We will miss him.”
Sergio Garcia, who won the 2011 Andalucia Masters at Valderrama, said: “This is a very sad day not just for Spain but for the whole of the golfing world.”
Patino took a lifelong interest in course maintenance and trained himself to the point where he oversaw day-to-day greenkeeping of Valderrama. In 1999, he received the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America's Old Tom Morris Award, the maintenance industry's highest honor.
Patino amassed an extensive collection of golf art and artifacts that captured the history of the game over the centuries. The collection of clubs, balls, prints, books and manuscripts, ceramics, photographs and paintings was auctioned at Christie's in London last year.
He is survived by his sons Felipe and Carlos and four grandchildren.

Born to Bolivian parents in Paris in 1930, Ortiz-Patiño found his passion for the game after a series of events, beginning in Italy when caddying for Dai Rees and receiving Ryder Cup tickets for the following year’s match in Lindrick, UK, in 1957.

It was that connection that led him many years later to create a vision for what would become Valderrama – increasing participation and busy courses led him and a group of associates to buy out the Los Aves course, which was subsequently remodelled by original designer Robert Trent Jones Snr, becoming Valderrama as we know it today.

Having created a masterpiece of the highest quality, it was not long before the course was hosting tournaments including 16 Volvo Masters, two World Golf Championship events and the Andalucía Masters.  But it was likely the Ryder Cup match’s move to Valderrama in 1997 that will ensure it remains in the history books as Ortiz-Patiño’s crowning glory.
 

PERSONAL MEMORIES OF A BENEVOLENT DICTATOR

By ALISTAIR TAIT (GolfWeek Staff Writer)

Jaime Ortiz-Patino liked to think of himself as a “benevolent dictator.” His words, not mine.

Patino was owner of Valderrama Golf Club in southern Spain. With a fortune made from tin mining in his native Bolivia, he had the money to spend on the course that became his true love.
No detail was overlooked in his quest to build the best course in Continental Europe. For 16 years, Patino’s layout hosted the European Tour’s season-ending Volvo Masters. It was the venue for the 1999 and 2000 WGC–American Express Championship. More recently, Valderrama was home to the Andalucia Masters.
However, his greatest triumph came in 1997 when Valderrama hosted the first Ryder Cup in Continental Europe.
Make no mistake about it: Patino used his vast fortune to buy the Ryder Cup, just as Michael Smurfit did in 2006 and Terry Matthews in 2010. However, unlike Smurfit and Matthews, Patino knew what was needed to maintain a golf course to tournament and Ryder Cup standard.
Patino was awarded the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America's Old Tom Morris Award in 1999. It was no honorary bauble, either.
Stories abound about how the lord and master of Valderrama would rise at 4:30 a.m. during the Ryder Cup to oversee course set-up. He not only did that in the Ryder Cup, but for any tournament at Valderrama. I know, because I witnessed him in action first-hand.
In the early 1990s, I managed to get Patino to agree to let me accompany him during his early morning preparations for the Volvo Masters. 
This meant meeting him at 4:30 a.m. in the Valderrama maintenance yard. I witnessed him swishing dew off the par-3, 12th green like one of his labourers.
I watched him meticulously direct the greenkeeper mowing the 13th green, making sure he did not stray off line with his cuts.
At the 10th green, I stood in horror as Patino took out a penknife to dig out a small triangle of sod to show me the root structure. Then he carefully reinserted the sod back into the green with all the love of a parent putting a child back to sleep.
It was obvious he had a love of the land and nature that was almost palpable. One of the criticisms of Valderrama is that the trees encroach too much onto the fairways, so that good tee shots often result in approach shots that have to be manufactured around encroaching branches and foliage.
“I hate cutting down trees,” Patino said. “I am advised to cut this tree or that tree, but most of the time I just can’t bear to cut them down.”
It was also obvious that morning that he was in his own personal kingdom.
“I have one golden rule here at Valderrama,” Patino said. “I have all the gold, so I make the rules. Think of me as a benevolent dictator.”
Englishman Michael Lovett worked as general manager of Valderrama for two spells, from 1989 to '92 and from 1994 to '95. He agrees with the "benevolent dictator" line. 
“Jimmy was the boss, no doubt about it,” Lovett said. “He once famously said: ‘I believe in odd-numbered boards, and three is too many.’
“He was a perfectionist. His attention to detail was amazing in everything he did. He always believed in having the best people around him, but he led from the front. His way was the only way.
“He was a visionary who changed and set the standard for the way tournaments should be run. For that, golf owes him a great deal.”
Aside from an immaculate golf course, Patino had one of the best collections of golf artifacts ever assembled. You couldn’t help but admire it, because it was on prominent display in the halls of the Valderrama clubhouse. The collection was auctioned last year at Christie’s in London.
Patino sold Valderrama to a group of private individuals last year.