Miguel Ángel Jiménez

Miguel Ángel Jiménez
Personal information
Full name	Miguel Ángel Jiménez Rodríguez
Nickname	The Mechanic
Born	(1964-01-05) 5 January 1964 (age 48) Málaga, Spain
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Weight	184 lb (83 kg; 13.1 st)
Nationality	Spain
Residence	Málaga, Spain
Spouse	Montserrat Bravo Ramirez (m.1991)
Children	Miguel Ángel (b.1995), Victor (b.1999)
Career
Turned professional	1982
Current tour(s)	European Tour (joined 1988)
Professional wins	21
Number of wins by tour
European Tour	18 (Tied 11th all time)
Best results in Major Championships
Masters Tournament	T8: 2008
U.S. Open	T2: 2000
The Open Championship	T3: 2001
PGA Championship	T10: 1999

Miguel Ángel Jiménez Rodríguez (born 5 January 1964) is a Spanish professional golfer. He has won 18 times on the European Tour.

Early years

Jiménez first played on the European Tour in 1988 and improved steadily over the next few seasons. His first win on the tour came at the Piaget Belgian Open in 1992. During a fairly up and down career, he has so far had four main periods of success. He has finished inside the top 100 on the European Tour Order of Merit every season since 1989. In 1994 he finished fifth on the European Tour Order of Merit. One highlight was scoring an exceptionally rare albatross (double eagle) on the 17th hole at Valderrama, during the 1994 Volvo Masters, sinking his second shot on the par-5 hole with a 3-iron.^[1]

After some weaker seasons he bounced back in 1998 and 1999, finishing fourth on the Order of Merit in consecutive years and winning four tournaments including the prestigious Volvo Masters. In 1999 he also came second in the WGC-American Express Championship, which is one of the elite World Golf Championships events, and made his Ryder Cup debut.

Career since 2000

In 2004 he once again bounced back from some modest seasons, notching up another fourth place finish on the Order of Merit, and winning four European Tour events, which was more than any other player. He maintained his form into 2005, winning the Omega Hong Kong Open, which is a European Tour event, and the Celtic Manor Wales Open. He has featured in the top 20 of the Official World Golf Rankings. Jiménez has had great success in team events representing Europe and Spain, winning the Alfred Dunhill Cup in 1999 and 2000, the Seve Trophy in 2000 and the Ryder Cup in 2004 and 2010.

In 2005 he won the Spanish Pairs final, with Andrés Jiménez at La Cala Resort in Andalucia, Spain.

2008 proved to be another good season with two wins, earning Jiménez a spot on the 2008 Ryder Cup team. He finished the season ranked fourth on the Order of Merit once more.

While defending his BMW PGA Championship title in 2009, Jiménez scored a rare albatross (double eagle) by holing a 206-yard six-iron on his second shot on the par-five fourth. It was the second such feat of his competitive career.^[2]

In February 2010, Jiménez won the Omega Dubai Desert Classic, beating Lee Westwood in a playoff^[3] and in July added the Alstom Open de France, beating Alejandro Cañizares and Francesco Molinari on the first hole of a playoff. He won his third event of the year at the Omega European Masters, finishing three strokes ahead of Edoardo Molinari

Personal

He is known as "The Mechanic" for his preference for driving, rather than repairing, high-performance vehicles, especially his red Ferrari.^[4]

Professional wins

European Tour wins (18)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up
1	27 Sep 1992	Piaget Belgian Open	-10 (71-70-64-69=274)	3 strokes	Barry Lane
2	24 Jul 1994	Heineken Dutch Open	-18 (65-68-67-70=270)	2 strokes	Howard Clark
3	10 May 1998	Turespana Masters Open Baleares	-9 (69-68-70-72=279)	2 strokes	Miguel Ángel Martín
4	20 Sep 1998	Trophée Lancôme	-11 (67-70-67-69=273)	2 strokes	David Duval, Mark O'Meara, Jarmo Sandelin, Greg Turner
5	14 Mar 1999	Turespana Masters - Open Andalucia	-24 (69-66-62-67=264)	4 strokes	Steve Webster
6	31 Oct 1999	Volvo Masters	-19 (68-67-69-65=269)	2 strokes	Retief Goosen, Pádraig Harrington, Bernhard Langer
7	19 Oct 2003	Turespana Mallorca Classic	-6 (72-67-65=204)	1 stroke	José María Olazábal
8	1 Feb 2004	Johnnie Walker Classic (co-sanctioned with Asian Tour)	-17 (70-66-67-68=271)	2 strokes	Thomas Bjørn, Jyoti Randhawa
9	4 Apr 2004	Algarve Open de Portugal	-16 (69-66-70-67=272)	2 strokes	Terry Price
10	16 May 2004	BMW Asian Open (co-sanctioned with Asian Tour)	-14 (71-66-70-67=274)	3 strokes	Simon Dyson
11	29 Aug 2004	BMW International Open	-21 (68-66-67-66=267)	2 strokes	Thomas Levet
12	5 Dec 2004	Omega Hong Kong Open (co-sanctioned with Asian Tour)	-14 (65-64-71-66=266)	1 stroke	Pádraig Harrington, James Kingston
13	5 Jun 2005	Celtic Manor Wales Open	-14 (63-67-70-62=262)	4 strokes	Martin Erlandsson, José Manuel Lara
14	18 Nov 2007	UBS Hong Kong Open (co-sanctioned with Asian Tour)	-15 (65-67-66-67=265)	1 stroke	K.J. Choi, Robert Karlsson, Thongchai Jaidee
15	25 May 2008	BMW PGA Championship	-11 (70-67-72-68=277)	Playoff	Oliver Wilson
16	7 Feb 2010	Omega Dubai Desert Classic	-11 (70-67-68-72=277)	Playoff	Lee Westwood
17	4 July 2010	Alstom Open de France	-11 (71-69-66-67=273)	Playoff	Alejandro Cañizares, Francesco Molinari
18	5 Sep 2010	Omega European Masters (co-sanctioned with Asian Tour)	-21 (67-61-68-67=263)	3 strokes	Edoardo Molinari

Other wins (3)

• 1988 Open de L'inforatique (France)
• 1989 Benson & Hedges Trophy (with Xonia Wunach-Ruiz)
• 1999 Oki Telepizza - Olivia Nova (Spain)

Results in major championships

DNP = Did not play
CUT = missed the half-way cut
DQ = Disqualified
"T" = tied
Yellow background for top-10.

Results in World Golf Championship events

¹Cancelled due to 9/11
DNP = Did not play
QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
"T" = Tied
NT = No tournament
Yellow background for top-10.
Note that the HSBC Champions did not become a WGC event until 2009.

Team appearances

• Ryder Cup (representing Europe): 1997 (Non-playing Assistant Captain - winners), 1999, 2004 (winners), 2008, 2010 (winners)
• Alfred Dunhill Cup (representing Spain): 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 (winners), 2000 (winners)
• World Cup (representing Spain): 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2011
• Seve Trophy (representing Continental Europe): 2000 (winners), 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011

See also

• List of golfers with most European Tour wins
• The Cigar guy, Rupesh Shingadia, dressed as Miguel Angel Jimenez.^[5]

References

External links

• Miguel Ángel Jiménez at the European Tour official site
• Miguel Ángel Jiménez at the PGA Tour official site
• Miguel Ángel Jiménez at the Official World Golf Ranking official site

Miguel Ángel Jiménez in the Ryder Cup v t e European Ryder Cup team – 1999 Darren Clarke · Andrew Coltart · Sergio García · Pádraig Harrington · Miguel Ángel Jiménez · Paul Lawrie · Colin Montgomerie · José María Olazábal · Jesper Parnevik · Jarmo Sandelin · Jean van de Velde · Lee Westwood Mark James (non-playing captain) Lost: 13.5 – 14.5 v t e European Ryder Cup team – 2004 Paul Casey · Darren Clarke · Luke Donald · Sergio García · Pádraig Harrington · David Howell · Miguel Ángel Jiménez · Thomas Levet · Paul McGinley · Colin Montgomerie · Ian Poulter · Lee Westwood Bernhard Langer (non-playing captain) Won: 18.5 – 9.5 v t e European Ryder Cup team – 2008 Paul Casey · Sergio García · Søren Hansen · Pádraig Harrington · Miguel Ángel Jiménez · Robert Karlsson · Graeme McDowell · Ian Poulter · Justin Rose · Henrik Stenson · Lee Westwood · Oliver Wilson Nick Faldo (non-playing captain) Lost: 11.5 – 16.5 v t e European Ryder Cup team – 2010 Luke Donald · Ross Fisher · Peter Hanson · Pádraig Harrington · Miguel Ángel Jiménez · Martin Kaymer · Graeme McDowell · Rory McIlroy · Edoardo Molinari · Francesco Molinari · Ian Poulter · Lee Westwood Colin Montgomerie (non-playing captain) Won: 14.5 – 13.5