Satellites might be picking up a little bit extra air pollution in Spain tonight. It’s a good guess that plenty of Spanish golf fans are lighting up their cigars in honor of native son Miguel Angel Jimenez.
Jimenez, whose victory cigar is one of the signature events of the modern game, won the Open de Espana on Sunday in his 27th time in the tournament. In doing so, he broke his own record for the oldest player to win a European Tour event, becoming the first player age 50 or older to ever do so.
Hitting half a century has been good for Jimenez, who finished fourth at The Masters a month ago and also won his first tournament on the Champions Tour.
Asked what his secret is to such good golf at age 50, the colorful Jimenez replied, “There is no secret. Good food, good wine, good cigars and some exercise!”
Fourteen of his 21 European Tour titles have come since he turned 40.
After leading the final round early by two strokes, he had to take out Richard Green and Thomas Pieters in a three-way, sudden death playoff. All three men played the 18th again, and all three missed the fairway.
Jimenez nearly made a birdie from the back part of the green, but his par was better than anything Green or Pieters could offer up.
Jimenez won despite shooting 1-over on the round and 2-over on the back nine. All three men in the playoff finished 4-under for the tournament.
Pieters could have run away with the win after firing back-to-back 69s on the first two days and a 71 on Saturday, but he slumped the worst. The Englishman bogeyed three of the first four holes on the front nine and was 4-over through 14 before getting back into things with an eagle 3 on No. 15, the same hole he eagled on Day One.
Good closing rounds were few and far between in the field. Only one of the Top 25 finishers, Sweden’s Niclas Fasth, shot under a 70 on Sunday. Fasth carded a 69 to jump from 38th to a tie for 24th.
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