When you’ve worked at the pinnacle of European golf, the opportunity to develop your career and expand your horizons can often be difficult to achieve.

And for 54-year-old Fernando Padrón Pérez, who spent four years working as director of operations at Valderrama in, Spain, he had to move continents to progress.

“I spent four very happy years working with Javier Reviriego at Valderrama, and throughout that period turned down may job opportunities at clubs across Europe, such was the prestige of working at such an elite club.

“Before joining Valderrama [in May 2015] I spent the day with Javier who asked prior to offering me the position that I commit to staying in Sotogrande for at least four years, something which I was very happy to do.”

The offer of employment at Valderrama may have been seen by many ambitious golf managers as the pinnacle of their career, but for Pérez, his ambition has led him to Mexico and the challenge of managing PGA Riveria Maya in Tulum, located an hour or so from Cancun.

But more of that later.

Unlike many of his peers, Padrón doesn’t come from golfing stock, and regards himself as “an average golfer playing off about eight on a good day.”

He does however pride himself on his drive and desire to be the very best manager he can be, which perhaps explains why in January 2010, he took the decision to sell several fitness centres that he owned, and re-train as a golf club operator.

“For many years, I had been working in companies related to sports, and in fact, I started as a marketing manager at a Premier League basketball club in Spain.

“I was also a ski instructor and have always had a love of sports. In January 2002 I opened several fitness centres in the Madrid area, but after a time, I decided that I wanted to do something else, but still within the sports sector.

“I have always loved golf and I am a member of the Country Club in Madrid as well as the Real Automóvil Club of Madrid. As an amateur player I was always curious about how a golf club was managed and so I wanted to understand how golf worked from the inside, and not from the outside as a player.

“I love sports and I love management, so I went to the south of Spain to study a Master’s degree in golf management in Malaga. They had an agreement with the University of Wales as well,” he recalls.

“I continued working in Madrid running the fitness centres, but at the weekends I took a train to Malaga and would spend the weekend there whilst studying.”

After finishing his master’s degree, Pardón worked briefly as an intern at Parador Golf in Malaga before his first breakthrough into golf management came at Campo de Golf Villamayor in Salamanca which he describes as “a great experience.”

He spent four years in Salamanca shortly after the financial crash of 2008/09 recalling: “It was very, very tough sometimes, and we had a lot of financial problems, and difficult situations to deal with. But we got good results, and we made a strong team, who were very committed to the project. I have some very fond memories from that period.”

It was whilst Pardón was at Salamanca that he was introduced to the CMAE which he unquestionably believes has benefited his career and helped him secure roles perhaps otherwise unachievable.

Now CCM qualified, Pardón has elevated himself to general manager at the Bahia-owned PGA Riveria Maya golf resort in Mexico, a position he left Valderrama to manage in May 2019. Spanish-owned, the Robert Trent Jones II designed golf course forms the centrepiece of a four-hotel resort, plus the Tulum Country Club which is a residential real estate gated complex close to the course.

PGA accredited since 2020, Bahia intend to reposition one of the four hotels – the Sian Kaan – as an upscale luxury golf hotel and is currently working with both Troon who have an involvement with the destination and the PGA of America as to how best proceed with the rebranding.

“I recall when I left Valderrama that there were questions asked of me why I would want to leave to manage a resort course on the other side of the Atlantic,” smiles Pardón.

“But after speaking with the owners who have plans to not only invest heavily in the golf course but also the golf-related infrastructure in the vicinity, the opportunity was simply too good to turn down.”

And testament to that, is the level of investment – during a pandemic – that Bahia have spent, including a new fleet of Club Car golf cars; new Toro maintenance and irrigation equipment and a new restaurant located adjacent to the current clubhouse.

“When I first came to Mexico, I knew that the visitor experience needed to be elevated as the entire business model here is based around world-class golf, with luxury hotels and high-end real estate.

“The condition of the golf course wasn’t at the level which, in my opinion, it needed to be, and as the entire greenkeeping operation was sub-contracted to an outside maintenance company, one of the first things I decided was to bring the operation in-house.

“So, I recruited the superintendent from my first golf club in Salamanca back home in Spain, and the transformation on the course really has been exceptional.”

Plans are afoot to replace all the bunkers on the golf course over the next 18 months, and to add a further nine-holes to the existing 18-hole championship course.

“We are still in early discussions with RTJ2,” said Padrón, “but the plan is to have three loops of nine holes, similar to The Wisley in the UK.”

And this in addition to the existing nine-hole, par 3 executive golf course which runs adjacent to the main course.

As with many golf resorts in North and Central America, real estate is an integral part of the master-plan, and although not directly responsible for the running of the property sales or the hotels, Padrón has a role to play. And as he lives onsite with his wife overlooking the fourth hole, he shares more than a passing interest in the development.

“Tulum is an up-and-coming area in Mexico,” he says, “and many Mexicans are choosing to leave cities such as Mexico City and Guadalajara to come and live here permanently.

“Yes, there are several American and Canadian second-home owners here also, but the vast majority of people buying property here are Mexicans. Tulum is seen as a safe place to live, and it has a lot to offer.

“Obviously the language and the culture are not too dissimilar to Spain, and although we return to our home in Sotogrande for a few weeks of the year to see family and friends, for now, Mexico is our home,” he states.

And one gets the impression, that unless his former boss at Valderrama decides to vacate his position forging a way forward for a potential return to his Sotogrande home, it will take quite some offer to prise Pardón away from his Mexican paradise.