He may not be the most interesting man in the world, but Miguel Angel Jimenez definitely is the most interesting man at TPC Sugarloaf this week.
The flamboyant Spaniard, who has been compared to “The Most Interesting Man in the World” character in Dos Equis beer ads, will make his Champions Tour debut in the Greater Gwinnett Championship this week. And he’ll do it fresh off a spectacular week at Augusta National Golf Club.
Jimenez finished fourth in the Masters, the second-best finish in history by a player 50 or over, behind Sam Snead’s third in 1963. Jimenez’s 66 on Saturday was the best round ever recorded in the tournament by someone from the senior set.
But Jimenez’s ability to play golf is but a fraction of the attraction that he brings to the rolling hills of Duluth and the field of 81 that will compete for $1.8 million this week. It is the puffy red ponytail, the mammoth cigars and his funky warm-up routine that has golf fans excited to have him in their midst again. He’s Chi Chi Rodriguez, Part 2.
“It will be great,” said England’s Roger Chapman, who has played with Jimenez for years on the European Tour and will compete against him at Sugarloaf this week. “I mean, he’s got the ponytail, he’s got the sunglasses, he’s got the wine, he’s got the cigars. I think he’ll fit in perfectly over here. And I think the crowds will love him. He plays to them.”
Jimenez is not so sure about that “world’s most interesting man” reference. He hears it all the time when he’s in the States, but doesn’t get it.
“That’s what you say here,” Jimenez said after playing in Wednesday’s pro-am. “I look in the mirror, but I still see the same one. When I look every morning, the mirror say, ‘hey, you are you.’”
Jimenez has always been a popular figure on the European Tour, but his star has been on a steady rise in America the past 10 years or so. It began at first with his golf. A late-bloomer as a professional, he began to regularly qualify for the majors in the mid-1990s, and he came to the United States to try his hand on the PGA Tour in 2002.
Then Americans started to get to know him. They noticed that his golf swing is upright and relaxed and self-taught. They learned that he would rather discuss red wines than the speed of the greens. He doesn’t travel with an entourage of agent, manager, swing coach and trainer. After a round, you might catch him at a local restaurant or pub.
“Well, I’ve been 25 years moving around the world playing,” said Jimenez, who has homes in Malaga, Spain, and Vienna, Austria, but spends 30 weeks a year traveling to play golf. “And then I don’t hide myself what I’m doing, know?”
And then there is the warm-up routine. Videos of it have gone viral on the Internet. Just search for “Jimenez warm-up routine,” and dozens of renditions will spring forth.
It starts simply with baton twirls of a pair of Ping irons, then it morphs into stretching and moving in ways that would make a stripper blush. The money move is a knees-together twist that would’ve gotten Elvis banned from television for good.
The Golf Channel could not wait for Jimenez to get to the practice tee during their wall-to-wall coverage of the Masters last week. Almost dutifully, Jimenez would oblige.
“I don’t mind because it does help you; it’s good for your joints,” Jimenez said. “You have to loosen up a little bit, your wrist, your ankles, your knees. That’s what it’s for. People say, ‘do it!’ So I do it. It’s nice to see happy faces around.”
Greater Gwinnett patrons should feel honored Jimenez will bust his move in their presence this week. He is making his Champions Tour debut here because it was the week after the Masters, and it was close. But he plans to play mostly across the pond so that he might reach his goal of becoming the qualifying for the European Ryder Cup this year as a 50-year-old. He’s ninth in the latest ranking.
“What I love most about it is the individuality there is in the game,” said Brad Faxon, a fellow Champions competitor and a part-time analyst for the Golf Channel. “There is no recipe to guarantee or assure success. For every Tiger Woods there is, there is a million people trying to be like him who will never get there. Nobody is copying Miguel Angel Jimenez, and I don’t understand that.”
Probably because nobody can.
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