Big Mig wins again as Maybin revives season with ace
Miguel Angel Jiménez celebrates with a cigar. Picture: Eoin Clarke www.golffile.ie
A hole-in-one helped Gareth Maybin secure a joint-seventh finish at the Spanish Open and a boost to his hopes of keeping his card as Miguel Angel Jimenez smashed his own record to win on tour at the age of 50.
The Ballyclare man aced the 185-yard eighth in one-under-par 71 at PGA Catalunya and end the tournament on one under and move from 188th to 145th in the Race to Dubai standings.
He was three shots behind winner Jimenez, with the Spaniard prevailing in a three-way play-off.
Jimenez won with a par at the first play-off hole after bogeys from Richard Green and Thomas Pieters.
Shane Lowry (71) and Paul McGinley (73) finished one over with David Higgins (73) three shots further back and Simon Thornton (74) on 10 over.
Maybin's move up the rankings is a major boost with only the top 115 set to retain their cards at the end of the season.
Looking good. Gareth Maybin aces the eighth at PGA Catalunya Resort. Picture: Thos Caffrey / www.golffile.ie
But the hero of the day was the amazing Jimenez, who won the Open de España at the 27th attempt to extend his own record as the oldest winner in European Tour history.
Jiménez let slip an early two shot lead before defeating Richard Green and Thomas Pieters on the first hole of a sudden-death play-off after the trio had finished tied on four under par following an attritional final round at PGA Catalunya Resort.
The players returned to the 18th for the play-off and all three failed to find the fairway or green in regulation, but Jiménez almost holed his chip from the back of the green for a birdie and a par proved good enough.
Green failed to get up and down from over the green and overnight leader Pieters, whose approach had come up short, saw his par putt catch the lip of the hole and stay out.
Jiménez has now won 21 European Tour titles, 14 of them coming since he turned 40, and Sunday's hard-fought victory continues a remarkable season.
It's in. Gareth Maybin celebrates with his caddie. Picture: Thos Caffrey / www.golffile.ie
Gareth Maybin retrieves his ball from the hole on the eighth. Picture: Thos Caffrey / www.golffile.ie
The 50 year old was in contention to become the oldest Major Champion in history before finishing fourth in the Masters last month, and seven days later won on his Champions Tour debut.
He has since got married, and now become the first player to win twice on The Race to Dubai in 2014.
"There's no words to describe what it means to me, you need to be into my skin but I'm not going to let you!" Jiménez said. "It's amazing. It's my 21st victory on The European Tour and 27 times I played the Spanish Open. I have been close a couple of times. Today it was very tough out there but I got it in the end.
"All the victories are special, all are unique, some of them give you more money, some less, but all of them are important. You play to win and when you make it you have to appreciate it.
"I don't know if I felt nerves, but you do feel tension, you feel the pressure. For instance on hole 17, when I saw the approach roll down the slope, those things cut my mind and take away the freedom from my hands. I don't know if that counts as nerves, but as tension, yes."
Asked the secret of his longevity, Jiménez added: "There is no secret. Good food, good wine, good cigars and some exercise!"
Jiménez’s win leaves him just outside the automatic Ryder Cup qualifying places and boosts his ambition of becoming Europe's oldest ever player at Gleneagles in September; Ted Ray was 50 years, two months and five days old at the inaugural contest in 1927.
"I would love to make The Ryder Cup team, I would break all the records at 50," added Jiménez, whose last appearance was at The Celtic Manor Resort in 2010. "I hope I can make the team and defend the European colours in Scotland."
Miguel Angel Jimenez savours his victory in the Spanish Open. Picture: Eoin Clarke www.golffile.ie
Pieters had held a two shot lead going into the final round but the 22 year old suffered a nightmare start with three bogeys in succession from the second, allowing Jiménez to move two clear of the field with three birdies and one bogey in the first six holes.
However, Jimenez then dropped shots on the ninth and tenth and had to chip in on the 11th to avoid an unwanted hat-trick, which left Green in the lead thanks to an outward nine of 34.
Green's chances looked to have disappeared when he ran up a triple-bogey seven on the 14th, hitting his second shot into the trees and after taking a penalty drop, compounding his error by three-putting from 30 feet.
However, the left-handed Australian repaired some of the damage with a birdie on the 15th and although Pieters made an eagle from four feet on the same hole, he and Jiménez both bogeyed the 17th to give Green another chance.
Green had won two of this three European Tour titles in play-offs, but now has ten second-place finishes to his name.
"I have to take a lot of positives out of it, it's the best I've played since the French Open last year," the 43 year old said.
"I played well in the Australian Open over Christmas, just unfortunately struggling to get the job done. I couldn't count how many times I have run second on The European Tour.
"It's just a shame that when the heat of the battle comes along a bit of misfortune happens every now and again.
"The 14th hole cost me big time and I played pretty solid from that point in and probably should have won the tournament by two shots if that had just been a par."
Pieters added: "Obviously I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't pull off the win but congrats to Miguel.
"I'm proud of the way I played this week, it was a tough week emotionally for my caddie with his best friend passing last week (Iain McGregor died during the Madeira Islands Open), so it was nice for both of us to get some more confidence going into some other tournaments.
"I made some mistakes but I have to learn from them."
