Teaching and competition go hand in hand in golf

José Ignacio Marín has been playing golf all his life, the sport he is passionate about. He started at 5 years old and now at 33 he has already accumulated several successes at the sports level. He has worked since he was a child and his life gave him the opportunity to dedicate himself body and soul to what he likes the most. He does it from the teaching plane and also has time to compete. Last season he was first in the Andalusian ranking and throughout these years he has competed in several professional tournaments worldwide.

In his case, he cannot live on what he earns when he goes to compete in tournaments, but he does from golf. Together with his brother, he set up the Marín Casado academy, specializing in teaching at the Santa Clara Golf Granada course. They give classes for beginners and also for children and adults with the aim of improving technique. “We started in Motril and later we went to the Granada Club de Golf de Las Gabias and for thirteen years we have been operating in Santa Clara Golf”, says the golfer from Granada.

He works with the utmost enthusiasm and with the purpose of expanding golf throughout the province. He assumes that it is a minority sport, but thinks that with dedication and support it has many possibilities to grow. He considers that it is not expensive and is within everyone’s reach.

He has not had all the support he would like to be able to compete, especially at an international level. With little sponsorship he has not been able to travel abroad to participate in tournaments that are attractive to any player. «This season I have competed more in Spain, because I lost a sponsor who had tax problems and I had no choice but to disassociate myself. I have gone out less and I have had to focus more on national tournaments », he explains.

This same year he qualified to play the Challenger of Spain that was played at the Sancti Petri golf course. These days he is in the capital to play the Professional Championship at the Club de Campo Villa de Madrid. His goal is to do a good job after making the cut, which has allowed him to be among the top forty in the competition.

After this tournament he will go to the final of the Andalusia circuit, which will be played in Malaga. His results have been good, which has allowed him to find himself fourth in the ranking this year. The eight best classified will play a final between August 22 and 26. His goal is to be there and for that he trains daily. He tries to give his best on the days of competition.

He is convinced that he can achieve good results. He spends a lot of time playing golf and would like more people from Granada to compete both nationally and internationally. He is aware that it is difficult to have support and that is what makes it difficult for more golfers to appear in the province.

He hopes to be able to play more tournaments soon. Some give out succulent prizes. «You can earn money, but it is a whiting that bites its tail. If you don’t have financial backing you can’t go. A month ago there were some tournaments in Thailand and due to lack of money I had to stay. You can take risks and do it as an investment, but if the results are not good, you will not get back what you have spent,” says José Ignacio Marín.

The advantage he has is that his sport is more long-lived than others. It allows you to play for many more years. «It is not like others, in which at 35 you already have to think about leaving practice. Here it is different and until you are 50 years old you are not a senior. You can keep playing and try to progress to increase your level », he comments.

He has plenty of illusion and he still has several tournaments to play this season. While the competition arrives, he enjoys teaching golf on a daily basis. This sport is part of his life and he wants more and more people to practice it.