José Maria, known to his friends as Chema, was born in Angola, Africa, son of a Portuguese father and Spanish mother, and the third of four children. When the civil war broke out in Angola his family moved to Galicia, Spain and it was in La Zapateira Golf Club, La Coruña, Spain, where Chema had his first introduction to the game of golf.  His father was a very keen amateur golfer, and he would take his son with him up to the golf club on weekends as a caddy. It didn´t take Chema long to find out that it was more fun playing than caddying!

He started to show signs of brilliance when as a twelve year old he won the “Copa del Generalisimo” which was the last trophy to be presented by General Franco before his death in 1975. Coached by Baldomero Ballesteros and a member of the Spanish National team, he represented Spain in the World Cup in St. Andrews, and won the Nations Cup in Belgium and in France .  His amateur career reached its climax in 1981 when he won the Spanish International Junior Championship at El Prat, Barcelona . 

After completing his secondary school education in La Coruña , we was the recipient of a full scholarship to play college golf in the United States of America . America provided him with the opportunity to combine his golf with studies and to perfect his English speaking skills.  After four years, he graduated from the United States International University in San Diego , California with a Bachelor of Science Degree in International Business. As a golfer he competed for four years on the NCAA college circuit.

After graduation Chema turned professional, joined the Spanish PGA, and embarked on an international carreer in professional golf. He spent six months playing the Sunshine Tour in South Africa before deciding to focus his carreer on instruction.  Teaching had always been his passion. Even playing college golf in the States all the players used to go to him for advice when something went wrong with their swings – he just had that “quiet eye”, the innate ability, something he was born with, not taught. His teaching carreer has been an international one, taking him to Greece , Denmark , Germany and ultimately Spain , and his focus has been on International Golf Resorts.

In Germany he was one of four head professionals at Bavaria´s largest golf resort, Bad Griesbach, with a team of 35 professionals. In 1997 he answered an advert in the Spanish Golf Journal for a Head Professional with Spanish, German and English speaking skills who could create and lead a golf academy at Novo Sancti Petri Golf Resort in Andalucia , Spain .  He was “ taylor made” for the job and jumped at the opportunity to return to his natal country and create something really unique using his accumulated experience. In November 2004 he was asked to be a guest speaker at the Spanish PGA Teaching Conference in Madrid on “How to Create a Golf Academy.”

Chema´s goal as Head Professional and Director of the golf academy at Novo Sancti Petri has been as his motto says, to create a golf school where “passion and excellence”go hand in hand. In his free time he loves spending time with his wife and two children, and also loves cooking paella and doing barbeques for friends. 

Chema´s favourite quotation is by Aristotle:

 “Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”

Chema´s motto “Passion and Excellence”