2023-10-12 00:03:54
Gonzalo Fernández Castaño turns 43 this Friday, but his plans do not include retiring. He is addicted to the adrenaline of competition and has plenty of energy. Starting today he is playing the Acciona Open in Spain, where he has presented his collaboration with the golf clothing brand Umanaq, of which he is a partner and ambassador.
At what age does a professional golfer retire?
That is a good question. What there is no doubt is that in sport in general the races are longer now, a sign that we take better care of ourselves physically, nutritionally, and mentally. Everything is more professionalized. The clearest case is tennis, where three of the magnificent four are still going strong at almost 40 years old. Before it was unthinkable, at 32 you were ventilated. And in golf the same thing happens with the difference that at 50 we have the senior circuit. Sometimes my head tells me to stop, but on the other hand I think that I have seven years left until I graduate, if I stop it will be difficult for me to get back to it. So in some way I want to stay active to reach the age of 50 with a certain competitive level and do my best. What I like is competition. If you have been lucky enough to be at the top like me, and win tournaments, the adrenaline that it generates in you, that tingle of competition, I have not been able to replicate with anything in life. So when you’re watching it from the couch and you don’t participate, you miss it too much and that’s why I want to continue.
You do a lot of things off the field, but I guess there’s nothing like playing…
It is a drug that you become addicted to and once you feel it you don’t want to do anything else. But professional careers have a beginning and an end, and that twilight of my career has worried me, because some have not ended well. Once you leave the competition it is not easy to find your place and there I have been very restless and at a business level I have liked to get involved. I have several projects that in one way or another take pressure off of you in the sporting aspect, because you play a little more calmly by diversifying your business.
Just in case you’ve already gotten into the world of podcasts…
I don’t know if I would call myself an influencer… People are curious about what the life of a professional is like, what Jon Rahm is like, what happened in this tournament, anecdotes… And one day, talking to my friend Alejandro Larrazabal, we thought about starting a podcast to tell things like two friends chatting about golf. If you add to that that we have access to players, who come together to tell their stories and see it as a chat with friends and not as an interview, they put on a shell. We have a very loyal audience and we have a good time and people are entertained, which is what it’s all about, because athletes are entertainers.
“Golf without labels” is his name…
We wanted to give it a more informal version and the logo is me breaking a stick, which is a photo they took of me in England that I’m not very proud of. It reflects the light-hearted and different tone of the program.
After Rahm’s last “Grande”, some commentator screwed up a bit…
They know everything: about Israel, Palestine, covid, politics, sports. He was a real nonsense. Golf has a series of stigmas attached to it that we are having a hard time getting rid of. With covid, people realized that it is a very healthy sport, outdoors, with social distance. That boom together with that of Jon Rahm means that golf in Spain is in a sweet moment. We have a Jon Rahm who is what Nadal has been in tennis and not only in sports, because Jon is an amazing communicator, he always says the right words, he is on the right side of the scale. He is the best ambassador of golf and Spanish sport and we must take advantage of that to remove the stigmas: that he does consume water, although fields are no longer irrigated with drinking water. All those kinds of things, as a communicator I believe it is my job to tell them and open the eyes of people who have those labels. And that was the idea of ”Golf without labels”, to talk differently, to show that golf is accessible to everyone. In fact, our champions are all from humble families, no one descends from the Cid’s paw.
You are anything but politically correct.
I’m sick of it. Life is hard and if my words offend you, put some earplugs in your ears. Political correctness makes me very tired. We must raise our voices, although it seems that only those on one side can do so. Why can Javier Bardem say things and I can’t? And they come out with the idea that sports and politics cannot be united. I will speak what I think is appropriate and sometimes I raise blisters, I’m sorry, that’s not my intention.
Was the battle in the story won by the left?
The battle in the story has been slightly won by the left. The comfortable thing now is to be progressive or leftist because it seems that you are always in possession of the truth. That would be comfortable and easy. And if you say something contrary you are a fascist or far-right. A nonsense. Toni Cantó has been highly criticized for his party changes, but let’s look at it another way: my political ideas are in the same place, what is happening is that people are leaning more towards the other side and that is why I am further away , they have been radicalizing, my ideas have not changed.
The easy thing is to be leftist, because you are in possession of the truth and everything else is incorrect.
He made quite a mess when he put on a hat supporting Trump
I’m a Trump fan because I played golf with him when we moved to Miami. He had not yet entered politics and was inaugurating his field. I liked him very much, I can’t deny it and he is a guy who says some things and comes to power and fulfills them. The only thing he didn’t do is that it seemed like he was going to go to war with the Korean and in the end they even became friends. He didn’t do anything he didn’t say he was going to do. I find him funny, he is a good golfer, and he has done a lot of things for golf in the United States, although he has also been reviled by the PGA and criticized at all levels. He is a character that amuses me and perhaps we would need a Trump here in Spain, a Miley, a character of that type, because what we have…
Do you sleep peacefully with Pedro Sánchez in government?
I have lost faith in Spain and it seems incredible to me with all the lies of recent years that the PSOE can get more than eight million votes. Endorsing everything he has done in this legislature. Four years ago, the socialist voter could have been caught resigning and he couldn’t think that he could negotiate with Podemos, with Bildu… But given what we’ve seen and that they voted for him again… Pedro Sánchez can have a lot of blame things in face, but there is no doubt that he is a true political animal, who caught us all on the wrong foot with the early elections and has gotten away with it again. Everything seems to indicate that he is going to have the votes of Junts and all of these, on the way to an amnesty that two days ago he himself said did not enter into the Constitution and it turns out that now, miraculously, it does. And by seven votes, not because he has a conviction that he can fix the Catalan problem, no.
Do you see any solution?
I think the only person who can fix this is Isabel Díaz Ayuso. As a Vox voter, if Ayuso runs for president of the government tomorrow, I would give my vote to the PP. She seems to me like an aunt with a nose, like Esperanza Aguirre was in her day, and I firmly believe that she will be the first president of the government of Spain. Because if she is Yolanda it can be chaos.
What is Jon Rahm for Spanish golf?
The best ambassador we can have for Spanish golf. Not only because of his game, because of what he has achieved so far and what he has left, because sportingly he has no limits. The fourteen clubs in the bag work for him. Other great Spanish players had some weak point, but everything works for him and that is combined with a privileged head and a winning spirit like Seve had, the combination is explosive. He is also a first-class communicator. We have to take advantage of his pull because he is an ambassador of Spanish sport.
And he always has Seve in his thoughts…
I grew up watching the Spanish Open at the Country Club watching Seve. My school folder was lined with photos of Severiano Ballesteros. And I was lucky enough to see it live. I didn’t compete with him because he had retired when I turned professional, but Seve opened the doors for us, like Santana in tennis, Nieto in motorcycles, they are those pioneers to whom we owe practically everything. And it doesn’t surprise me that he has it in mind, because Jon maintains a close relationship with his son Javi. Seve promoted the European circuit and Ryder. He is an idol still today in England. There have been three figures worldwide. Arnold Palmer, the first great mass idol, Seve was the equivalent of him in Europe and then came Tiger Woods. They are those people who change the sport a little.
What level of stardom do you put Jon at?
Five Majors, more than 50 victories on the European circuit… Seve’s numbers are enormous, but Jon’s potential is there. When I met him and saw the conviction that he had in his possibilities, I knew that he could go wherever he wanted. I am very “jonrahmista”.
Is he a great leader for the rest of the Spanish players?
A few years ago Jon came to play at Valderrama, he missed the cut and I sent him a message thanking him for coming, because the importance of him playing in Spain is brutal and he does it with a good face and without conditions. People are coming to the Country Club this weekend for Jon Rahm. His children come to see Gonzalo Fernández Castaño and because they know they are going to see Rahm, to take a photo with him. People come to see Rahm like I came when I was ten years old for Seve.
#Javier #Bardem