Carlos Burguillo of Malaga, Spain, has won a $9,500 scholarship to Michigan State University from Valderrama Golf Club in San Roque, Spain, funded through a grant by The Environmental Institute for Golf, the philanthropic organization of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA).
The Valderrama Award is a two-year grant that allows citizens of Spain to study turfgrass management in the United States. The award is based on leadership potential and academics and the winner also receives an all-expense paid trip to the 2009 GCSAA Education Conference (Feb. 2-7) and Golf Industry Show (Feb. 5-7) in New Orleans. Burguillo was chosen by Valderrama President Felipe Ortiz-Patiño.
Valderrama Golf Club is located in Andalucia, the largest and southern-most region of Spain, a few miles north of Gibraltar. Founder and honorary president Jaime Ortiz-Patiño is a GCSAA member. He received the association's highest honor in 1999, the Old Tom Morris Award, and he has served terms on The Institute's board of trustees and its Advisory Council. Valderrama's golf course was designed in 1974 by Robert Trent Jones Sr., GCSAA's 1987 Old Tom Morris Award winner. Valderrama hosted the 1997 Ryder Cup, the 1999 and 2000 World Golf Championships - American Express Championship and the European Tour's flagship event, the Volvo Masters, from 1988-1996 and 2001-2008.
A Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary since 1997, Valderrama is frequented by more than 90 bird species, as the golf course sits directly in the path of the narrowest part of European birds' migration route to Africa and back. With 40 acres of wildlife sanctuaries at Valderrama, made up of mixed woodland, dry grassy banks or damp valley floors, wildlife can flourish in peace and safety, developing the diversity that naturally occurs within the norms of the local geology and climate.