One of the most unique characters in golf, David Gorman met with Miguel Ángel Jiménez at Las Colinas Golf & Country Club, where he unveiled his new Short Game Facility to the public
Playing flop shots and bunker shots from plugged lies to perfection, Miguel Ángel Jiménez was in fine form when he put on a clinic to open the new Las Colinas Short Game Facility.
He prepared for the exhibition with his famously unique warm-up, where the back goes straight and to the ground, the rear end goes up, the body stretches in a way that would leave the average 53-year-old man struggling for oxygen. Next, the knees go in a brisk circular motion while he belts out an old Spanish tune. Then he returns to his cigar – a hand-rolled Cohiba Siglo VI Cuban that costs €36 a pop.
After the clinic, off it was then for a tasty lunch at Las Colinas with friends, a large glass of Rioja, enjoying the Alicante weather, where it is 26 degrees in mid-October, surrounded by Spanish friends. This is a man, who, when asked in a previous interview by Sports Illustrated’s Alan Shipnuck if he would like some water, he said: “My friend, water is for fish.”
Watching on, it was difficult to think who in the world of golf could put on a more interesting exhibition than Jiménez. Tiger Woods would have more star power; John Daly may have had more silliness. But what makes Jiménez such a captivating figure in golf is that he matches the showmanship with results.
Jiménez is a 21-time winner on the European Tour, the tenth most of all-time, and the time between his first and last victories spans 22 years. He is a four-time Ryder Cup player, and a part of the winning team in 2004 and 2010. The Most Interesting Man in Golf is a serious player. Even at 53 years old, he finished in the top 10 of the Rolex Series-backed Italian Open in October
“You have to take golf seriously. Nothing is a joke, but you need to look at the positives on things,” he says. “Enjoy and have fun. You play because you love the game. If not, you better do something else.
“My stretches are very important because flexibility gives you mobility. Mobility is critical to stay at the highest level for longer.”
Jiménez was quite a latecomer to playing golf, where he came through the caddie route, collecting balls on the driving range at Torrequebrada Golf Club near Malaga, where the Spanish Open was held that year. There, a young Jiménez saw the great Seve Ballesteros close-up, and was inspired to play the game.
Within three years, he had turned professional but he would not make it to the European Tour until 1988, and it took nearly five more years to record his maiden win in the 1992 Belgian Open.
Jiménez was not blessed with natural talents like long driving, but he put in long hours on the range, and picked up priceless tips from his major-winning Spanish peers, Seve Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olazábal, especially with regard to the short-game.
“The more you practice on Tour, the more you improve. You see different techniques, I learnt a lot from Seve and Olazábal.
“We play many, many rounds together. Of course I ask him, why do you do that? Why do you hit a flop shot? Then you take in what you see, and you go practice.”
Helping the next generation to practice their short games like he did is part of his motivation for the ‘Las Colinas Short Game Facility designed by Miguel Angel Jiménez’.
Spread across 5,000 sq. metres at Las Colinas Golf & Country Club, the Short Game Facility boasts spacious Bermuda grass playing areas and an immaculate 680 sq. metre green with lush bent grass. It will be open to visit golfers and pro groups looking to fine tune their game at a resort which was recently crowned ‘Europe’s Leading Villa Resort’ at the prestigious World Travel Awards.
Las Colinas, venue for the Second Stage of the European Tour’s Qualifying School, is located south of Alicante in 330 hectares of Mediterranean woodland. It has become a leader in attracting international leisure visitors and second-home owners to the region since its opening in 2010.
“When I started golf at 15 years old in Malaga, I would have a wedge in my hands, chipping and putting every day,” Jiménez said.
“The kids have a lot of fun around the green. You don’t need to tell them. There is the hole, put it in the hole, there’s nothing else to say.
“The key to being a short-game master is rhythm. If you are struggling on the golf course and are hitting the ball all over the place, maybe you can practice on improving technique in the long-term, but for the here and now, for this round, it is rhythm.”
Jiménez has also designed a nine-hole par 3 course in Torremolinos, while he had his first venture into golf course design with the Prosper Golf Resort in the Czech Republic, a former three-time host of the now defunct Czech Open on the European Tour. But the Spaniard’s intentions are still firmly set on competing, albeit mainly on the PGA Champions Tour these days.
“As long as I am competitive I will keep continue playing. When you play a tournament, you play your best, and you cannot win, then it’s time to say goodbye. Until then, as long as I am fit, I will keep playing.”
Jiménez finished fifth on the Champions Tour money list in the US this year, earning a nice $1,538,366 from 19 events. The Spaniard still prefers the European way of life though, and finds it tough to play two thirds of his schedule away from home, his wife, Susanna Styblo, an Austrian lady ten years his junior, and his two sons, aged 18 and 22.
“I live in Austria, my wife is in Austria, my home is in Malaga. It is always tough when you are moving away but this has been my life for 29 years.
“I miss my sons. I go back and forth all the time to spend as much time with them as possible but when you have only half a year, it is very long away.
“You manage, because you love what you are doing. That’s the only way.”
Jiménez’s sons are talented golfers, with one turning professional, and the other in college in America, playing off a scratch handicap.
“I tell them that if they want to play golf for a living, then commit to it. Even if you commit to it and you are a very good player, there are thousands that never make it. Work and make something of yourself, doing something that you enjoy.”
Something that Jiménez has enjoyed, and is very proud of participating in, is the Ryder Cup. Jiménez is unique in that he was a Ryder Cup vice-captain before he played, when he helped out Seve as captain in 1997.
A four-time player in the event, one of his main highlights was beating Bubba Watson 4&3 in the singles at Celtic Manor in 2010. As well as 1997, Jiménez was vice-captain in 2012 and 2014.
It came as a big disappointment, then, when Jiménez never got the nod for Ryder Cup captaincy himself. The often cited reason was that his English was not good enough for the job, which Jiménez is previously quoted as saying was “a little bit banana Republic”.
His main opportunity for captaincy was in 2016, when Darren Clarke was chosen, but he has now accepted that he will no longer have anything to do with the Ryder Cup.
“When I was on the European Tour committee and played on the regular Tour, I was one of the main defenders that the captain should be a player on the Tour. Then you have the ability to play with the players and know about them, speak with them. It is one of the keys to the success of the recent Ryder Cups.
“I am not a regular anymore on the European Tour, so I cannot be a hypocrite. The Ryder Cup is very important and you need to be 120% into that.
“I don’t want to be on the Ryder Cup anymore, as an assistant captain, as a captain or whatever.
“I would have liked to have been Ryder Cup captain before, of course, but the time is gone. You have to accept that, if you don’t accept that, you will be upset. I have accepted that.
“Thomas Bjorn will do a good job; he is still on the Tour. He will have chance to play with them. I am more than happy with him as captain.”
Aside from not becoming Ryder Cup captain, Jiménez has no regrets, although he never did win his favourite event in the world, The Open, where he came closest in 2013 when he led after two days, before fading over the weekend. Next year, his favourite course in the world, Carnoustie, will host the The Open, but he says that he is undecided about whether he will try to qualify or not.
Miguel has seen it all since he arrived on the European Tour almost 30 years ago. In 1988, the longest hitter on the PGA Tour averaged 284 yards, in 2017, a player hitting that distance will struggle to compete. The Spaniard admits that the equipment has changed since he arrived on Tour, but says that the biggest difference is the type of players that play golf now.
“Shaping the ball is the old fashion, now it’s smashing the ball. The ball is very hard. This is how they sell golf balls, of course.
“But I have seen the difference in how young players prepare themselves. They are more athletic now, they are in different shape than 30 or 40 years ago. It is only going to get more about power over the next few years.”
With swings becoming more and more aggressive, and injuries more common, the top stars today are less and less likely to swing as timelessly as Miguel, who has won over €24m during his time on the European Tour.
It is quite fitting that his career has mirrored his life, ageing like the finest bottle of Rioja in the cellar.
5 Great Miguel Ángel Jiménez Moments
Valderrama Albatross
The 17th at Valderrama is one of the iconic holes in European golf, a long, daunting risk-reward par 5 over water. In 1994, Jiménez hit one of the best shots of his career during the Volvo Masters, a 3-iron that landed over the water and rolled in like a putt to a rapturous response from the home crowd. Magic
Lancöme Trophy
Wins do not come much more dramatic than this one. In 1998, Jiménez was one shot ahead on the 18th, with players like soon-to-be World No 1 David Duval and Masters champion Mark O’Meara behind him. Under pressure, he pulled his ball into the water, but then proceeded to chip over the bunker from the drop zone and into the hole for a birdie and the win.
Road Hole Wall Shot
Jiménez is known as a great thinker on the golf course and he showed all kinds of improvisation at the 2010 Open at St Andrews when his ball landed up against the wall. So Jiménez decides that the only way he can make the green is to play it against the wall. It came out perfectly and the crowd erupted. “It was a shot that makes you feel up on a cloud”.
Oldest Winner
Jiménez’s game is timeless and he showed that at the Open de Espana in 2014, which he won at the age of 50 years and 133 days, the oldest winner in European Tour history. It was his 27th attempt to win his home open. “There’s no words to describe what it means to me,” Jiménez said afterwards.
Wentworth Hole-in-One
Fortune favours the brave and Miguel holds the hole-in-one record on the European Tour with an amazing 10 aces. The pick of the lot may have been his hole-in-one at Wentworth during the 2015 BMW PGA Championship, when he struck a perfect nine-iron that pitched five feet beyond the pin and spun straight into the cup. A familiar dance ensued amidst rapturous applause.
This article first appeared in issue 133 of Golf Digest Ireland
The Power Drive 