The people who make a difference in the Canary Islands
A lack of tennis courts led Carlos Beautell, director of recently inaugurated Tecina Golf, to his first golf course and a whole new future opened up.
 Director of Tecina golf course, Carlos Beautell
 Finca Las Toscas
Tenerife
Bungalows (rental) |
19.10.2004 - The Beautell family came to Tenerife in the mid 19th century from England and fourth generation Carlos was Santa Cruz born and bred. As a child he was sent to tennis classes at the Club Náutico but there were few courts and the adults always got the first choice. His golf playing grandfather, who still spoke Spanish with an English accent, had bought shares in the Real club de Golf at El Peñon in Tacoronte for each of his children and when Carlos was seven or eight, “they had children’s lessons and a bus from Santa Cruz so my mother said, ‘well, off you go to play golf’. When we started, it was a bit of a joke, we spent almost more time playing football,” but he started to enjoy it and improve and at 12 years old the club sent a group of youngsters including Carlos, to the Spanish championships and he was hooked - he’d got the competitive bug. “Severiano Ballesteros was at the top of his profession at the time. He was my idol. Then I won the Spanish Championship in my age group at 13 years old and that was it, I was totally immersed in the world of golf”.
When he finished school he wanted to turn professional, but he had to decide between going pro straight away, studying, or to study whilst playing golf, “which in Spain is almost impossible”. A friend helped him to obtain a scholarship in Atlanta where he studied business management and administration at the Georgia Institute of Technology on a golfing scholarship. He was to stay in America almost six years, playing in the University team as an amateur in the important University League. “In America golf is the third most important spectator and participation sport in the country behind American football and baseball and ahead of basketball”.
It was during this time that he had the opportunity to play in his favourite course in the world (apart from Tecina of course) - Augusta National golf club. “I’ve played there five times. I’ve never played Saint Andrew’s and I would like to but anyone can play there and that’s as it should be, but Atlanta is a private, exclusive course and I suppose that’s part of its attraction. I was lucky, some ex students of the university were members and they invited us to play every year”.
Carlos came back to Spain because of the difficulty of finding a sponsor in America and spent the first six months in Tenerife, then two years in Marbella and three years in Malaga, playing matches and giving lessons. During this time, he married his long term Tinerfeñan girlfriend, Maria Carrillo. Then, “things weren’t going too well career wise and they offered me a job as director of a golf course in Huelva. I was 28 years old, and time was ticking by, I thought ‘it’s now or never’ and grabbed the opportunity with both hands. I was there two and a half years and from there I came straight over here to Tecina golf.
“Fred Olsen were looking for a Canarian to come over to run the course, because they would have less problems of adaptation to the isolation, distance from friends and family etc. I must be honest, I didn’t want to come at first, but when I saw the project I was enchanted. I fell in love with the Tecina course straight away. It’s a marvel”. He arrived in January 2003 but on the previous 16th of December there had been a heavy rain fall which took half the course with it, “so when I arrived – there was no course, or what there was, was a disaster and I spent 10 months overseeing the construction or reconstruction. In one way I was pleased because I learned a great deal and on the other hand it was bad news because we had to delay the opening”. However “It was a real challenge to start a course off, I’ve never done it before and you learn a lot.
“The course is somewhat special. It has an important distinction from other courses, in that from the first hole to the 18th, there is a difference in height above sea level of 175 metres. It is almost three kilometres from the clubhouse, so what we do is, those who want to walk are ferried by the company minibus and they walk down and those who don’t can take a buggy.” As well as attracting tourists, Carlos is convinced that the inspirational course will attract locals to start to play, taking advantage of the classes given by course professional Juan Olmeda. “Golf has the fame of being an elitist sport but I believe it should be for everyone”. For those who are based on other islands, there are various combined transport and accommodation offers with green fees. “We want golf visitors to Tenerife to see it as just another option of the circuit, at the same level and in some ways more attractive than many, with prices of ferry and green fee similar to just a green fee over there. From Gran Canaria we offer packages of green fee and hotel”. At the moment golf cruises don’t exist in the Canaries as such, visiting all the islands, however Fred Olsen do offer their Flagship golf service on some cruises that come to the Canaries and La Gomera will soon become one of the stop-offs for those cruises.
“A couple of clients recently said ‘it’s impossible to play here’, I was a bit worried I asked if there was a problem and they replied ‘you start looking at the views and you forget to play golf.’ The most spectacular things about the course are the views and of course the design. Donald Steel’s designed a course where are the holes are practically level – none are uphill. So it’s what we call playable - a very comfortable course to play. Some of the holes, for example, four, 10, 12 and 18 are amongst the most spectacular that I’ve seen in my life”.
The superb course is yet another proof of the Fred Olsen commitment to quality. “The company always chooses quality over quantity – at the hotel for example, they have chosen to constantly to improve the service and facilities and it works, the clients come back again and again”. The clubhouse is supposedly provisional, although it’s complete, well organised and has spectacular views over the Tapahuga beach. They call it provisional because it will be a part of the site of one of the additional future luxury hotels to be built in the area. There are two hotels on the drawing board, a four star hotel of 300 plus bedrooms next to the existing hotel Tecina and a smaller five star one dedicated to golf which will incorporate the existing club house and the 19th hole, shop, golf reception and restaurant will be integrated into the hotel.
“I believe that golf courses bring wealth, work and tourists who bring in money. I think it would be terrible to put a golf course in the middle of the Garajonay national park for example or in the middle of a pine forest, but to create a golf course in an area without ecological values, where’s the problem. You could create a golf course in a rubbish dump if you wanted and regenerate it totally or in arid zones, and you’re not damaging them, completely the reverse. A banana plantation uses more water than a golf course, people don’t know that, or they don’t want to know. You go to some areas in La Gomera and what there are, are stones. If you create a golf course there it brings life. It’ll bring birds in for example, because you should see the number of birds that are using the Tecina golf course, and every day there are new varieties, it’s like a refuge for them.
“A golf client usually has higher buying power and spends more per person because they go to better quality places and spend cash on a souvenir course shirt, or in the restaurant, commercial centres etc. It’s tourism of a higher quality. Then there is the question of property. A golf course in itself is not a great business, it gives an area additional attraction, but in itself it’s not a great business. If the surrounding development is good then it can be brilliant, if it’s bad it can spoil everything. I’m going to use La Gomera as an example, because with the Pueblo de Don Thomas village, I think it’s an incredible example of quality.” Carlos lives five minutes from the course, but doesn’t rule out buying one of the exclusive luxury apartments or villas that are being built close by. The new village is a one-off living and investment opportunity, in a residential complex in idyllic surroundings, with outstanding views to the Atlantic Ocean, the Tecina Golf Course, the Hotel Jardín Tecina and Mount Teide. The first show house is expected to open at the beginning of November. “There is also a project to extend the Santiago port and create a sandy beach. The day that happens, all this is going to boom. I don’t know whether that’ll be in two, five or 10 years, but it’s the only thing that’s missing.
Extremely happy at the moment, Carlos isn’t sure where life, and golf, will take him in the long term. Children may be on the cards, but at the moment, “we’ve got a basset hound called Bartolo, which is treated like a child.” He loves La Gomera’s beauty and the levels of ecological protection it enjoys, but misses the lively social life he enjoyed in mainland Spain, “Gomeritis” as he called it. He certainly doesn’t miss the traffic! Professionally, he would love to bring the Spanish Open to La Gomera and said it would be, “logistically challenging but not impossible” and that, “obviously, it’s every professional golfer’s dream to organise an Open - the course certainly deserves it. Come as soon as you can,” he invited. “It’s a course that you’ll want to come back to again and again and it will leave you with images that will live in your heart and mind forever.”
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