Astara Chile Classic director: ‘The winner of the tournament will be a PGA player next year’

Only three months separate Chile from having a Korn Ferry Tour tournament again. A step that is largely due to the direction of Alejandro Perić, who for several years thought about bringing the Classic from Chile. That’s why, speaking to El Deportivo, he’s excited about the potential of the event to be held at the Prince of Wales Country Club in Santiago between March 27 and April 2.

In addition, the enthusiasm shown by the PGA commissioner with the tournament and the relevance of Chile in the most important spheres of world golf stand out. Of course, he also admits that the big challenge has been convincing the authorities of the potential it means to have a presence in the development circuit of the most important lathe on the planet. Tickets for the tournament go on sale today through Passline.

You were present at the annual meeting of the PGA, how was the experience?

Super interesting, because in my case I hadn’t been there since 2014 and we found a lot of progress, so it was a good update experience. I was also able to meet the new commissioner of the PGA and he made a very good impression on me. He was absolutely aware that the tournament was back and even offered to come to the country for one of the upcoming events. The event is super well regarded and Chile too. People want to come. In fact, many of the PGA executives who come to the tournament told us they were coming a few days before with the family to meet.

What could he have spoken to Jay Monahan, commissioner of the PGA?

He was very interested in knowing things about Chile, he asked me to tell him more about the country. In front of me, he congratulated the president of Korn Ferry for arranging for the return of the tournament to Chile. He knew a lot, from a golf development perspective. He knew how many athletes there were here, how many clubs, where the most important clubs were. He asked me about development programs. It was very interesting and surprising.

Guess that knowledge wasn’t there when you went to that same event in 2014

No doubts. For example, an anecdotal detail is that in the hotel lobby there was a sign with ten welcome flags and one of them was Chilean. It is no coincidence, nor a merit of the tournament, but today the golf world speaks of Joaquín (Niemann) and Mito (Pereira) as two formidable figures. This contributes to the perception of the country. I had to accompany Benjamín Alvarado when he qualified for the PGA in 2013 and when I was at Santiago airport they called me from the PGA to bring a Chilean flag because they don’t have one. couldn’t find there. Today the Chilean flag is on all PGA golf courses, so the change is brutal.

In the assembly you were able to discuss with the directors of the North American tournaments, what differences did you find?

In the United States, in each tournament, there are about 400 volunteers and these volunteers not only work for free, but they pay to be volunteers. They pay $300 each, so it’s impossible to implement here. The modes of financing the tournament are also different. In the ProAms (a professional tournament and three amateurs in teams of 4 players) the places for these trios are sold for $15,000, so the gain from the ProAm is even greater than what the main sponsor of the tournament generates. These are things that sound great, but are very difficult to implement. People here are used to playing these events for free. But these are things that have to be managed. There is also a strong emphasis on social issues, support for foundations, invitations to sectors that do not have access to golf, to people with physical disabilities. But it’s something we still did, because we still have foundations present.

And what about the LIV Golf?

Nothing has been officially mentioned. Only the commissioner made a comment that the PGA should care about being better every day, so without naming names, it was kind of obvious where he was coming from. Obviously, in more informal conversations, the tournament directors who came to say hello regretted the departure of Joaquín (Niemann), because they have a very good vision of him as a person and as a player. But honestly, I didn’t notice much concern about the LIV and it caught my attention. I thought a lot more was going to be said than what was said.

In this fight for the hegemony of golf, the Korn Ferry is very important…

Yes, in fact, we insisted a lot on that. Among the tours that the PGA has, it is the one that has increased the most in recent years, in terms of percentage, in terms of money, and this has the consequence that the Korn Ferry will give more points for the world ranking. It is the only circuit to raise its score in the world rankings this year. It was also commented that players’ time got shorter, between winning the Korn Ferry and winning the PGA. The percentage of Korn Ferry players who keep their card on the PGA has also improved significantly. Before one of the four promoted players kept the card. Today, it has risen to 70%. The sporting level of the Korn Ferry is close to that of the PGA.

This also affects the Astara Chile Classic

There has been a strong shake-up in Chilean professional golf. Several players who were hesitant to continue playing golf overcame their indecision and began training with the intention of qualifying for the tournament. Nicolás Geyger is an example. I myself have already received more than 60 applications to participate in the competition. Especially now that there are 30 cards for the PGA and that mathematically means that the player who wins a tournament is automatically ranked for the PGA. Thus, the winner of the Astara Chile Classic will be a PGA player next year. In the past, when the tournament was won, the player was very well placed, but he was not guaranteed to win. These five additional cards allow the golfer to secure their card for another year.

What was the biggest difficulty you encountered in relation to the tournament?

I will be very clear. The biggest difficulty was to explain to political authorities and sports authorities, such as the Ministry of Sports and the National Sports Institute, the importance of having a tournament of this magnitude for Chile. It really cost us a lot and I had two meetings with the undersecretary for sports, meetings with the undersecretary for tourism, because that part is also very important. It was difficult for me to explain and make them notice the importance. To this day, I realize that they have not seized it. It was the most amazing thing in all honesty.

This may go hand in hand with the social bias that golf still has

There is no doubt a prejudice, but today there are very important green shoots. Golf is played not only in clubs, but also in schools, in different municipalities. A golf course was built at the former national women’s boarding school in Ñuñoa. We take action in La Pintana, Lo Espejo, Maipú, Renca, in the regions. Mito and Joaco’s presence has also helped people who don’t play golf, who have never been on a golf course, to become interested in the sport.