Mar García Jiménez is fourteen years old. She is intelligent, hard-working, tenacious and very shy. Despite her young age, she has experienced the sweet smell of success after winning the Andalusia Junior Championship in 2018. Her ambition is to become a professional golfer and even now in the summer while here friends are on the beach, she istraining hard every day with this in mind. Her hallmark are the long socks that she alwayswears, which bring her good luck. Her main weapons as a golfer are her composure andconfidence, vitally important for approach play, where Mar is peerless.

Mar’s first encounter with golf came before her ninthbirthday. Her uncle, Santiago Jiménez Ramírez, the pro at La Cañada golf course and member of the Andalusian Golf Federation, encouraged her to give the sport a go but she did not like it. “I was really bad at first and I hated it, until I began to train a bit more and started to see the results”, Mar recalls.
Little by little she began to get better and won several junior titles in Seville, Jerez and Antequera. In 2017, she won the Andalusia Pitch and Putt championship
and eventually, in 2018, she became the Andalusia Junior Champion, going on to represent her home region in the Autonomous Communities Championship,
where she finished ninth after posting her first below pars. What’s more, competing outside Spain she managed a top ten finish in a golf circuit in England last summer, a challenge she will face again this August. All these titles and many more have earned Mar
sponsorship by the Villa Padierna Golf Academy. By doing so, this golf club, which is showing its support for women’s golf, will provide her with unlimited use of its three courses as well as all the academy’s other facilities. Every evening Mar goes to Villa Padierna to practise tirelessly accompanied by María del Mar, her mum and loyal supporter. This year, now in the youth category, Mar has included fitness training with the help of Juan Anelo, the trainer of golf greats such as Álvaro Quirós or Cañizares. As a result, Mar can be found at half past eight every morning in the gym. It’s her willpower and dreams that encourage her to keep working hard. “My dream is to play in the most
important tours in Europe and America,” says Mar, whose idols are Michelle Wie and Rory Mcllroy, although in the last Valderrama Masters she was supporting Jon Rahm. And the thing is, despite her shyness, Mar smiles when she says that she would
love to be famous and actually likes the admiration she receives from her classmates at the Atalaya School. When she finishes her studies there her idea is to be able to go to BLUME, the school of our most distinguished players such as Azahara Muñoz
or Carlota Ciganda. Mar is fearless, and while she knows that golf it tough, she loves it. “I step out onto the golf course and even if I feel really bad, it all goes away. Golf makes me happy”, she says with a glint in her eyes. The serenity she exudes is unbelievable in such a young girl, which is exactly what makes her special as she never gets angry when she has a bad day or misses a shot. She is quite clear that “when you make a mistake, make it a good one”. It’s a wonderful motto that we’ve made a note of and would like to share. Because it’s never too late to learn and today Mar has taught us a lesson. Thanks
champion, and good luck in all the tournaments that you are competing in this year. Let’s hope we see you lifting plenty of trophies and that we keep learning from you.