Laidback Jimenez in Masters contention with vintage display
By Mark Lamport-Stokes
AUGUSTA, Georgia (Reuters) - Just six days from making his debut on the Champions Tour for players over 50, charismatic Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez is best known for his love of cigars and Rioja wine, and his quirky warm-up routine.
Yet the pony-tailed 50-year-old from Malaga has produced some of the best golf of his career in recent months and on Saturday at the Masters he fired the lowest score of the tournament to surge into contention.
Jimenez, who bettered his own record as the European Tour's oldest winner at the Hong Kong Open in December, piled up seven birdies and a lone bogey on the way to a sparkling six-under-par 66 in the third round at a sun-baked Augusta National.
A winner of 20 titles on the European Tour since he turned professional in 1982, Jimenez has yet to land his first major but remarkably he would surpass Jack Nicklaus as the oldest Masters champion with a breakthrough victory on Sunday.
"If you are 50, it doesn't mean that you cannot play well," Jimenez told reporters with a grin after posting a three-under total of 213. "I'm still moving. I'm still flexible.
"I hit the ball longer than ever. I'm not a long hitter necessarily, just a medium hitter. But I still play my irons, when I want to play a fade or draw, high or low, it still happens. I'm competitive, you know."
Asked whether he felt better equipped to win a major in the twilight of his already impressive career, Jimenez replied: "Majors are about patience ... and today I was very patient.
"I just commit to every hole, shot by shot. That's the secret to playing this golf course. I have plenty of victories in my career and having a major in my career would be amazing.
"That would be the flower on top. If I can play golf and control the ball, I have my chances. If you are close there (in contention), you have chances. I'm still going close on the weekend of a major. I've got chances."
AUGUSTA LOVE AFFAIR
Jimenez, whose best major finish was a tie for second at the 2000 U.S. Open, has recorded three top-10s in 14 Masters starts and has enjoyed a career-long love affair with Augusta National.
"It's a beautiful place, a beautiful golf course, always manicured and I feel great here," he said. "Doesn't matter how you play, you feel good because everything is prepared for us the way it is.
"You need to hit good here and you need to be patient, and you need to be into your own zone. That's my style of game and what I love, what I love to do."
The Spaniard's hilariously unique warm-up routine, where he spins around a few golf clubs and performs an occasional light stretch while puffing on his cigar, has become hugely popular on YouTube.
When asked about it, Jimenez agreed that fans at Augusta National this week have relished watching that routine on the practice range perhaps even more than his superb golf out on the course.
"Sometimes I'm looking at myself on video and I'm laughing as well," said Jimenez who will compete in next week's Champions Tour event, the April 18-20 Greater Gwinnett Championship, in Duluth, Georgia. "But the main thing is I never get injured.
"That is a little funny what you see there, but it helps to move the joints. What you do early in the morning, you do the proper exercise and everything is going on in the back (background), what people cannot see.
"At 50, it's difficult to be here (on tour) if you are not working out somehow. You need to be flexible and you need to be elastic and strong to be here."
Whatever the outcome of Sunday's final round, Jimenez intends to make the most of the whole experience.
"The main thing is enjoy yourself, enjoy what you're doing, to not get injured, and smile, because you can't forget to smile on the golf course," he said with another broad grin.
(Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes; Editing by Gene Cherry)