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Jaime Ortiz-Patiño

Jaime "Jimmy" Ortiz-Patiño (20 June 1930 - 3 January 2013) was a French-born Spanish industrialist who became a major figure in European golf and bridge. In 1984 Patiño acquired what became the Valderrama Golf Club, a ten-year-old course in southern Spain designed by Robert Trent Jones, who contributed to its re-design and expansion. Patiño subsequently arranged for Valderrama to host the 32nd Ryder Cup in 1997, its first staging in continental Europe.

Life

Patiño was born in Paris to Bolivian parents. His grandfather, Simón Iturri Patiño was believed to be one of the five wealthiest men in the world during world war II. Jaime Ortiz-Patiño's many pastimes included several important collections, including the collection of rare golf sporting items which were sold in London at Christie's auction house in 2012. According to his International Bridge Press Association (IBPA) obituary, Jaime Ortiz-Patiño "was the foremost collector of golf and bridge memoribilia in the world."

He died in a Malagan hospital on 3 January 2013, aged 82, from undisclosed causes.

Golf

Jaime Ortiz-Patiño became one of the most influential figures in European golf after he acquired Valderrama Golf Club in 1984. Angel Gallardo, the European Tour's vice chairman, called Ortiz-Patiño "the soul of golf in Europe".

As the sole owner of Valderrama, he heavily invested to make Valderrama a top European golf course, which has been ranked the #1 course in mainland Europe since 1988. The same year, Valderrama started hosting the Volvo Masters which continued until 2008, except for a five-year period between 1997 and 2001. Jaime Ortiz-Patiño also led a successful bid to host the 32nd Ryder Cup in 1997 at Valderrama. During the 1997 Ryder Cup, he oversaw the day-to-day maintenance of the course, getting up at 3am to ensure course readiness. At the same time, he counted HRH Prince Andrew, President H.W. Bush and his wife, as well as HRH Prince Bernard of the Netherlands as his personal house guests.

Jaime Ortiz-Patiño served as president of the PGAs of Europe in 2001/2002 and his contributions to the game of golf were recognized with several prestigious awards, including the Old Tom Morris Award in 1999, the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America's most prestigious honor, and the Christer Lindberg Bowl in 2006, the PGAs of Europe most prestigious award.

He was passionate about the care for the environment and worked diligently to promote it. He served as a member of the R&A Golf Course Committee until 2003, the USGA's Turfgrass and Environmental Research Committee from 1992-2000, the USGA Green Section Committee from 1989-1999 and was the 1999 recipient of the USGA Green Section's Piper & Oakley Award.

Bridge

Generally known as Ortiz-Patiño he was a major figure in the world of contract bridge, including service as treasurer of the European Bridge League from 1975 to 1983 and president of the World Bridge Federation (WBF) from 1976 to 1986. According to IBPA he "was responsible for" the introduction of screens and bidding boxes in world competition, the integration of China as a WBF member, and the establishment of the World Youth Team Championships. The biennial World Junior Teams Championship for the Ortiz-Patiño Trophy, inaugurated in 1987, features national teams of players under age 26. As the World Youth Teams Championships, usually plural, it now includes parallel Youngsters (u-21) and Girls (u-26 women) events.

From 1964 to 1972 he played for Switzerland in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quadrennial World Team Olympiad tournaments, as captain both 1964 and 1972. The Swiss finished 5th to 8th on all three occasions. As "Patino" he led a transnational team to 5th place in the inaugural, 1978 Rosenblum Cup competition. In the 1965 European Championship in Ostend, Ortiz-Patiño's failure to shift the bidding to four clubs from his partner Pietro Bernasconi's bid of 3NT resulted in his team losing all 13 tricks: doubled, vulnerable, down 9, worth 2600 points.

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