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Carlota Ziganda, a Spanish one in the golf elite

Carlota Ciganda already has another glass on her award shelf. The last trophy was celebrated this Sunday with her first Spanish Open at the Andalusia Costa del Sol, the last tournament on the European Women’s Golf Circuit. It is hard for the Navarrese to say goodbye to this successful year. Thus closes the fifth victory in the last chapter of the year of the Ladies European Tour, after a 2021 in which she finished in twenty-ninth position in the Tokyo Olympic Games and where she was European champion in the Solheim Cup. Everyone is already hailing her to the shout of the “new Rahm of women’s golf in the world.” Carlota, exclusively attends El Confidencial after her triumph in Marbella: “I am happy for this victory, but we still have a lot to do. The visibility of women in the golf is very slow, but little by little we are getting there ”.

The Spanish closes a glorious season personally. (Manuel Fernandez Valdivia)

The Navarrese, with a forceful spirit in the field, He does not spare a single blow, although as a child I was going to be a footballer: “My uncle is a soccer coach and I have always liked the ball a lot, in fact I continue to play in small tournaments in my country in my spare time.” Her father, Jesús, who looks into the interview, tells us that “she was the best in the team of the boys who played in the team. His uncle, my brother, Cuco Ziganda made sure it was like that”. The woman from Pamplona in her line of competitive women, replaced the ball with golf clubs at the end. “Bah, a small change you leave a big ball for a smaller one,” he says with a smile.. And that’s when the sport became more than just child’s play. Today, she is still not believed to be the best Spanish golfer of the moment, in an elite dominated by Asian players.

His friendship with Rafa Nadal

Improvement in recent years

“Before she was very aggressive in the field, now she has learned to measure herself and that has benefited her in the game,” her environment told this newspaper. Like any elite athlete, Carlota has her rituals, as in throwing the ball, when the Navarrese always kicks the grass several times before taking the action. She is one of those who thinks that rituals are necessary as Saint-Exupery said in ‘The Little Prince’. Carlota loves to read and if they are psychology books, all the better. “My favorite author is Javier Iriondo, a great coach with a past as a professional athlete in the USA, which in his writings gives us courage. He created the GolfPlus company, related in different areas to the world of golf and everything in his books are lessons ”.

The Navarrese caresses everything that has to do with golf. It is his life on and off the field. Her boyfriend James also lives in between sticks, residing together in Arizona: “I am very much in love. He is English and is another golfer’s caddy. Together we complement each other ”. Carlota speaks openly about motherhood in the world of sports, commenting that, although it is not the moment, it is in her plans to be a mother. She, as her father says, “is very close to being at home, she loves her family very much and has great love for her land. Despite having been in the United States since the age of 18, he always tries to come home once a month. He needs the food of Chus, my wife and the walks in the mountains “. The one who was an entrepreneur at the La Vaca que laughter factory, tells as an anecdote that when his daughter travels the world, she remembers so much about the family “that she looks for the labels of these little cheeses to bring them to me. It’s a daughter’s love , of which we are very proud ”.

Now that the numbers in the pandemic are rising again, Carlota will stay in Spain to rest after the end of the season. She overcame the covid in July 2020 in her apartment in Scottsdale (Arizona): “It’s a terrible time. I soon learned that it was the coronavirus because I began to feel very bad, with pain in my arms, neck, head … I began to have a fever every night, I could barely sleep and, in addition, the Whoop bracelet that I wear registered strange values ​​in the scale of breaths per minute ”. Now she is grateful to be able to meet again with the public, since she loves to feel supported by her followers. The Navarrese does not blush when someone classifies her as “the Ballesteros or the female Rahm”, She is aware of her claw, and of that imprint that differentiates her from the rest of the players on the field. Of course, and almost nobody knows it, the Pamplona has never run in the San Fermines: “Uff what a scare -he smiles- that’s something else, I leave it to the bravest.”

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