Gloria González has been doing her tasks as ladies’ vice-captain for more than six years. Being a woman who lives for golf, her identity marks are her teaching skills, tenacity, perseverance and her thorough work. El Candado is her second home, and the members of the club are her family; that is why she looks after the club and helps the affiliates with total dedication. Gloria often acts as the captain on behalf of Ana Navas, because Ana travels very often. They both together are a great tandem and they are an essential part of El Candado.

Gloria was thirty-two years old when she had her first golf lesson. Her brother-in-law, Emilio Ciano, a golf pro and later on a trainer at El Parador, managed to convince his entire family to play. The entrance of her youngest daughter to the nursery brought Gloria the opportunity to find time to begin with a hobby, that step by step, took over her: “Emilio taught my sister, who plays very well, and to my younger brother, who is a teacher here. I started alone, I found a group of friends, I went on playing and I got hooked due to the fact that every day you get better and you compete. Now, golf is my life”, she tells us.

It is usual to see Gloria at El Candado every morning. Going around the club looking for details to improve and the organization of the interclub are some of her daily tasks: “Ana’s job is to make the cards and call the clubs, but she travels a lot, so I myself take over it. Among my tasks are the organization of the Wednesday mini-league and the lunch on the last Wednesday of the month. Furthermore, this year is our turn at the Interclub final, in autumn. El Candado has won it for three years in a row”, she proudly explains, while she tells us the secret: “The thing is that the mini-league is for elder women and we don’t have buggies here, so they get tired. When they come here, they say that we have worn them out, hahaha. And our course is very technical, we are used to the requirement of having to always play very straight because we have many outs”.

The election of the outfit for the team members is another of the tasks of the vice-captain. Her love for detail and her observation capacity are two of her more remarkable qualities. So, Gloria likes to go out with the new lady members: “I have a pending issue. 15 years ago, I achieved a 13 handicap, after that you go upwards as you get older; but I would have loved to be a golf teacher, I find it fascinating teaching people. I can see the mistakes very easily and when new people arrive, I try to help them. With my age, it is already impossible to achieve a zero handicap and give lessons, but I would have loved it”, she explains with a smile on her face.

Gloria is also part of a very enjoyable group within the club called “Los Palomos”, a name with a great significance: “My husband is a pigeon-fancier, he has racing pigeons. He is very hooked to it, the same as I am to golf. He even has been a champion in Spain with a pigeon that came to Malaga from Vigo in 9 hours”, she explains. Los Palomos are popular for organizing very original competitions: “The Hickory Tournament is such fun that everybody wants to come. We also made the prawn party and we laugh a lot, we were all dressed in red. In autumn we organize the Oktoberfest, we have already done it for two years and every time more and more people come”.

With her group, they also travel around Andalucia to play golf: “The best thing the golf has given me is good friends. What I like the most about golf are the meetings and going out. When I started, I used to say that I will retire at sixty, because what will I do still playing golf… and now that I am over sixty, I feel amazingly well. This fills you”, Gloria explains. And we wish she stays many more years because golf can’t lose such a beautiful smile.