LUXURY LIVING SPORT u u
At the height of his success as a professional golfer , Manuel Piñero won two World Cups , the 1985 Ryder Cup , nine European tour titles and five Spanish championships . He describes Seve Ballesteros – with whom he won the 1976 World Cup – as the player “ who did more than anyone for European golf ”, but Piñero himself is an icon of the sport , in Spain and internationally .
Now aged 64 , Piñero must look back at his career with immense pride . He admits that golf has enabled him to live “ an incredible life ” of the sort he couldn ’ t possibly have imagined when he was growing up . “ My education is from the ‘ university of life ’ and golf gave me that opportunity . I have met extraordinary people through golf – heads of state , prime ministers , Richard Nixon , the King of Spain and his grandfather , Bing Crosby … With my background , through golf , with the opportunities I have had , even today I can go almost anywhere in the world ,” he says .
But he says all this without a hint of conceit – something that surely comes from the lessons learnt during Piñero ’ s childhood in rural Extremadura , and from parents who never knew such luxury . “ I never heard them complain about their life or their hardships or ever say a bad word . They never argued in front of us ,” he says . “ My mother , who is now 90 , cannot read or write , but my parents were the best teachers of life . They were always looking forward and teaching us to be positive . Life will always give you a chance to look forward .”
It is a spirit that must have driven his father to take 10-year-old Manuel , his two brothers and their mother away from their home near Badajoz to start a new life in Madrid . “ From birth to six I grew up in the middle of a forest , in a wooden house with no electricity or water . Later we moved to the village and then to Madrid with the aim of having a better standard of living ,” says Piñero .
Except the family had nowhere to live in Madrid , so they stayed in an abandoned house with a well . The following year , his father bought a plot of land and built a house by hand , “ stone by stone , with the help of cousins in the construction business . As luck would have it , this house is now in one of the wealthiest areas of Madrid ,” Piñero says .
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