February 23, 2014 – After extensive research, interviews and data collection, the book “Sant Cugat Golf Club 1914-2014” by journalist Nuria Pastor has been published. This book marks the starting point of the activities that the Catalan club has prepared to commemorate its Centennial in 2014.

The book of the 100 years of the club chronicles its history from when it was founded in 1914 by Fred Stark Pearson, to the background of the Barcelona Traction Company and the construction of the railway. In its first pages it reviews the work of Harry Shaplan Colt, renowned golf course designer of the time, the naming of the course as the New Barcelona Golf Club, and the transformation of the old farmhouse of Can Mora into the current clubhouse.

Among the 19 chapters the book also describes how, in 1937, the course was seized by the Generalitat to convert it to the Preliminary Warfare School Pins del Vallès, until the end of the Civil War. In another chapter on botanical details we are told about the existence of the oak tree with the largest crown in Catalunya.

Of course the book also speaks of the professionals who have come from CG Sant Cugat to play on the European Tour, such as Txomin Hospital, Fernando Roca, Ignacio Feliu, Ivo Giner, Agustin Domingo and of course Paula Marti, the player who reached the No1 ranking of the Ladies European Tour in 2002, and formed part of the European Team at the 2002 Solheim Cup. Other significant people who have come out of CG Sant Cugat are the golf course designer Alfonso Vidaor, and his brother Miguel Vidaor, director of the European Tour.

The CG Sant Cugat hosted the Open of Spain in 1942 and 1967, and the World Ladies Match Play Catalunya in 2006. And among the most outstanding historical facts we hear about Seve Ballesteros who made ​​his professional debut at this course in 1974; José María Olazábal who won his first Spanish Junior Championship here in 1979; and Sergio Garcia who won the Professional Championship of Catalonia while still an amateur in 1997.

Nuria Pastor is a specialist golf journalist, who published in La Vanguardia for many years and wrote for Solo Golf magazine. She has also covered 99 Majors and 15 Ryder Cups.

The book, in limited edition, is in two versions (Catalan and Spanish), and can be purchased at the clubhouse store.

More information: www.golfsantcugat.com.

Por REDACCIÓN