Alberto Valenzuela, the premier Golf Course Superintendent & Architect in Colombia.

The third chapter of the “Journey to Olympic Golf” started with a flight from Panama City, Panama to Cartagena, Colombia on Monday, December 9th, 2013 and a visit to the Karibana Golf Resort. It was a privilege to meet and play golf with Joseph Mildenberg, part owner and the Sales & Marketing Guru of the only seaside golfing resort in Colombia. He was a happy owner taking note of the extraordinary work down in a short period of time by his new golf superintendent Alberto Valenzuela. The Jack Nicklaus design was lush and a sea of its own emerald green adjacent to the blue waters of the Caribbean Sea. Joseph would tell you he has brought the Karibana golf course back to life!

CLICK here for a VIDEO INTERVIEW with Alberto Valenzuela at Karibana.

With Alberto Valenzuela at Karibana.

Alberto was born in Cali and raised in Bogota. He played golf and was educated at Fresno State in California before constructing golf courses around the world for various designers. Now, back home for good with 29 years of experience in the golf course business he simply says “I am from Colombia” and “golf means everything to me, I sleep, breathe, and eat golf, it is my passion.” That’s why I nicknamed him “Mr. Colombia” when it comes to golf. Of course, that title goes to Camilo Villegas when it comes to playing competitive golf at the highest level and being a champion on the PGA TOUR. The ‘Cheerful Colombian,’ a friend of the Villegas family pointed me in the direction of Camilo’s hometown of Medellin and the Llanogrande golf course he grew up on.

CLICK here for a VIDEO INTERVIEW with Alberto Valenzuela at Llanogrande.

With Fernando Villegas & Alberto Valenzuela at Llanogrande for breakfast.

From Cartagena I flew to Bogota for a few days and then to Medellin on Sunday, December 15th, 2013 as a guest of Sergio Saldarriaga, the President of Club Campestre Medellin at both their ‘country’ Llanogrande course and their ‘city’ Medellin course. In Medellin I met and interviewed Camilo and Manuel’s swing coach Rogelio Gonzalez but that is another story to tell and post along with my interview with Sergio. I played the Llanogrande course and spent the next day (Monday, December 16th, 2013) with Alberto and Fernando Villegas who is the father of Camilo and Manuel. What a day of insight into the minds of two great architects. Plus to be where Camilo grew up and to walk the golf course as he did as a kid before going onto the University of Florida and fame and fortune on the PGA TOUR was an awesome adventure. The video below speaks to the teamwork and resulting creativity between Alberto and Fernando. It also includes an interview with Fernando (with Alberto acting as translator) speaking to raising two champion golfers, having them partner together in a World Cup representing Colombia and the possibilities of them playing golf in the 2016 Olympics.

CLICK here for a VIDEO INTERVIEW of Fernando Villegas and Clips of Two Working Architects.

Enjoy these 134 pictures from my time with Fernando and Alberto at Llanogrande Medellin:

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CLICK HERE for a VIDEO INTERVIEW with Herman Calle Sr., Colombia’s Golf Guru

With son translator Alejandro and his father German Calle Sr.

Yesterday was a travel day, relatively short flight from Cartagena to Bogota. Getting settled into the Bogota Hilton was a breeze. After a good night’s rest I was up and prepared to meet and interview Herman Calle, Sr., Colombia’s Golf Guru. Karibana’s Joseph Mildenberg (or Mildenberg’s Karibana if you like) had set it up for me at his family’s offices in an impressive corner building right down the block in the heart of Bogota’s business district.

Mr. Calle doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak Spanish so our conversation was translated both ways by his son Alejandro who is a lawyer. His other son, the junior, is the Director of the Colombian Open, President of Sportslink and subsequent to my visit, an organizer of a new Web.com event in the Dominican Republic. (Dominic Bozzelli just won the inaugural event). Golf runs as deep and wide in the Calle family as the Villegas family in Colombia.

It was fun to sit down and hear the history of golf in Colombia from German and his son Alejandro.

Mr. Calle’s timing in golf was as they say—the right guy at the right time! Like most people he came to golf through family—his parents were golfers so he became a golfer. His first column, his first printed word in golf, was in 1997 when Tiger Woods emerged onto the scene. Buoyed by the growth of the game worldwide, his first golf broadcast coincided with Camilo Villegas turning professional after a stellar collegiate career at the University of Florida. The sexiest player on tour, who struck a Spiderman pose when reading putts, won back-to-back playoff events in 2006 and rose to No. 7 in World Rankings to become the highest ranked golfer from South America.

I had to get an autograph copy of Mr. Calle’s latest column on Colombia Marcelo Rozo becoming the first Colombian to win the Argentina Open, a tournament that dates back to 1905!

Professionally Calle had a media pass to be right there to witness the explosion of golf in Colombia, as evidenced first-and-foremost by Mildenberg’s Karibana Resort. Colombia is a golfing country and with the transition to become TPC Cartagena at Karibana and host to the Web.com Tour golf has never been better with 63 golf courses to play.

Personally, Calle told me “golf is like a school where you apply most everything you learn” and golf is like life where there are good shots and bad shots and the ball ends up in the hole.” Connecting with father and son in this way I had to share that I could not agree more as a 12-year old recipient of the Ben Hogan Five Modern Lessons book from my older brother L.P. inscribed with the following to his younger brother: “Golf is a lot like life, the more you learn and understand about it, the easier it is to meet its challenge.” We couldn’t agree more on golf and life!

The complete foursome including Joseph Mildenberg at Karibana Headquarters in Bogota!

Hogan was Calle Sr.’s golfing hero and shared details of Hogan’s life and career including the recovery from the bad car accident. This wise man also sees the Olympics as a good thing for golf in Colombia and around the world. As for me, he was pretty excited about the “Journey to Olympic Golf” and thanked me for coming to visit Colombia and wishes more golfers would follow my path through Cartagena—Bogota—Medellin.

As excited I was to meet Mr. Calle, now I was even more excited to get to Medellin and walk in the footsteps of Camilo Villegas on the Llanogrande Course he grew up on. With Alberto Valenzuela, Joseph’s and now German’s help that visit come Monday was sure to be exceptionally good!

But there was still golf to be played and sightseeing to be seen during my 3-day weekend in Bogota, Colombia!