VETERAN SPANIARD BOOSTS RYDER CUP SELECTION PROSPECTS

Spanish hero Miguel Angel Jimenez with his trophies. Picture by courtesy of Getty Images(c)

JIMENEZ WINS THREE-MAN PLAY-OFF

FOR FIRST SPANISH OPEN TITLE 
FROM THE EUROPEAN TOUR WEBSITE
Miguel Angel Jiménez, the "Malaga Mechanic," finally 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 Australian left-hander Richard Green and Belgium's Tour School graduate rookie 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.
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."
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.
SCOTSWATCH: Richie Ramsay earned 58,050 Euros for a joint fifth place finish on 286 after a disappointng final round of 74.
Paul Lawrie finished T15 on 289 after a closing round of 73. He earned 18,917, a good effort after 3 1/2 months on the sidelines with a neck injury.
 
LEADNG FINAL TOTALS
Par 288 (4x72). Prizemoney in euros
284 Miguel Angel Jimenez 69 73 69 73, Richard Green (Australia) 74 69 69 72, Thomas Pieters (Belgium) 69 69 71 75. Jimenez (250,000) won play-off at first extra hole. Green, Peters 139,280 each
288 Joost Luiten (Netherlands) 70 68 74 72 (75,000)
286 Max Kieffer (Germany) 75 69 68 73, Richie Ramsay (Scotland) 69 72 71 74 (58,050 each)
287 Felipe Aguilar (Chile) 74 70 69 74, Alejandra Canizares (Spain) 72 76 69 70, Darren Fichardt (S Africa) 77 66 73 71, Gareth Maybin (N Ireland) 73 70 73 71, Chris Woods (England) 73 70 69 75 (34,740 each)

SELECTED TOTALS
289 Paul Lawrie (Scotland) 70 72 74 73 (T15) (18,917)
291 Marc Warren (Scotland) 75 70 72 74 (T28) (12,315)
292 Sergio Garcia (Spain) 69 74 73 70 (T38) (8,850).
300 Craig Lee (Scotland) 73 75 71 81 (70th) (2,850).

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