Over 80 years ago, María Tordesillas discovered golf in Pedreña. She became a fan, gradually polished her swing, soon began to show promise and ended up being the runner-up in the prestigious Queen’s Cup in 1946 and 1948, then known as the International of Spain. She didn’t know it, but she was creating a mess, an extraordinary mess, without eating or drinking it she inoculated a poison into her family that lasts to this day. Jaime Montojo is her great-grandson and this week he plays the Open Championship at 19 years old. Luis Montojo is another of her great-grandsons and this week he carries his brother Jaime’s bag at the Open Championship. It’s the story of an incredible saga.
The simple fact that the saga starts with a woman in the 40s of the last century is in itself an exceptional fact. It can be said that she is one of the great pioneers of Spanish golf, prior, for example, to Elvira Larrazábal, the first professional Spanish woman in history. María instilled golf in Sofía Pérez Tordesillas, her daughter and grandmother of Luis and Jaime. She moved up a notch and won the Queen’s Cup at the Country Club in 1958. More poison in the veins. More golf.
Sofía got her husband and her children into golf and they soon began to stand out, especially Alfonso and Luis, the father of Jaime and Luis, who for now have earned the right to be known in the family as the Open ones. Luis, the father of the creatures featured in Royal Troon, was second in the Spanish Boys Championship, second in the Spanish Doubles Championship (beaten by a certain Sergio García) and won the Interclub Championship with Puerta de Hierro alongside Pedro Oriol and Gonzalo Fernández Castaño. Almost nothing. Luis Montojo, the father, and his brothers, were the first large saga in history to participate at the same time in a Spanish Championship. The next were his four children: Gonzalo, Ana, Luis and Jaime, with the clarification that they did so by qualifying, something that did not exist before.
The Montojo brothers are two years apart. To this day Gonzalo, the eldest, has a handicap of 4.5, Ana records 1.5, Luis has 0.3 and Jaime is 4.4 plus. By the way, their father, whom we referred to earlier, still has 2.7 plus. Brutal.
There is no family in the world that does not live in a special and very intense way that one of its members plays an Open Championship, but you can get a very easy idea of what it means for a saga as prolific from the golf point of view as the Tordesillas-Pérez-Montojo. It’s a week of pure celebration. They are enjoying every moment, every scene.
Luis, Jaime’s brother and his caddie this week, won almost everything in lower categories. His career was meteoric, surpassing the best of his generation, but his fantastic progression was stopped by a knee problem. Even so, he remains a sensational golf player and is sure to be very useful to his brother Jaime this week.
Jaime, for now, is the youngest of the saga and the one who has gone furthest. He has not yet won a Spanish Championship, he desires it to the maximum, but he is unlikely to lose a dialectical battle at home after qualifying for an Open Championship. Tomorrow he tees off at 1 on the tee at 17.05, Spanish peninsular time, and his great-grandmother María, wherever she is, will shed a small tear of pride and emotion. What a mess you made, Mr. Tordesillas.
