Making his Champions Tour debut at the Greater Gwennett Championship this week Miguel Angel Jimenez continued to build his resume as the golf guy in the Dos Equis commercials. He was always a someone who enjoyed fast cars, fine wines, and a bit of revelry but his golf of late is developing an eclectic reputation of it’s own.

This is a man who marches to his own drummer…., ”he gave his father ‘the talk’”. Witness the now famous Miguel on course warm up routine as recounted at the Open Championship by Mike Tirico and Paul Azinger.

The beginning of his pre-game warm-up

No stranger to the winner’s circle Miguel has won 20 times on the European Tour over his 22-year career. He became the European Tour’s oldest winner in December when he won the Hong Kong Open in a playoff with Stuart Manley and Prom Meesawat. So far this year he is 8th in the Race to Dubai standings with over 670,000 Euros in winnings to his credit. Apparently, “Superman has pajamas with his logo”.

Just last week Jimenez, at age 50, was low European at The Masters. His Saturday 66 at Augusta National put him in contention and a solid 71 on Sunday got him to 4-under and earned him a 4th place finish behind winner Bubba, Jordan Spieth, and Jonas Blixt. He is currently 9th in the Ryder Cup European Points and has a good chance of being a veteran anchor for the European squad at Gleneagles this fall. Makes sense that “The Holy Grail is looking for him”.

After besting the youthful Rickie in the final round of The Masters

Since he was in the Georgia neighborhood and just passed the age requirement, he decided to throw his pony tail and aviator shades into the mix at the Champion’s Tour Greater Gwennett Championship this week. Miguel came out of the gate on Friday shooting an unbelievable 7-under par 65 in on and off monsoon conditions. Freddie Couples, playing with him, said that he made it look easy, I guess this is expected from a guy who’s “lives vicariously through himself”.

A solid 70 on Saturday got him to 9-under and one ahead playing in the final group with two of the powerhouse icons of the Champions Tour, Bernhard Langer and Freddie Couples. This is a man who “has never waited 15 minutes after finishing a meal before returning to the pool”. After starting the day with five pars he made five birdies over the next eight holes to distance himself from the field at 14-under. He did not make a bogie in the last 32 holes of the tournament and his tight iron game down the stretch put him on cruise control to win by two. He is only the third man to win wire-to-wire in his Champion’s Tour debut.

The man has a bit of Jerry Garcia style for a senior

Now Miguel has the luxury of deciding whether to spend the next five months on the home European Tour turf collecting more Ryder Cup Points or pursuing the low hanging fruit that is within his grasp competing with the round bellies on this side of the Atlantic.

Either way, I am sure his advice to Bernard, Freddie, Jay, Colin, and the others is:

“Stay thirsty my friends”.

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April, 2014