Miguel Angel Jiménez becomes the oldest winner on the European Tour
Miguel Angel Jiménez became the oldest winner on the European Tour, after winning the UBS Hong Kong Open, at the age of 48 years and 318 days, on Sunday, November 18, 2012.
The Spaniard superseded a spirited charge from Fredrіk Аndersson Hed, who was bidding to secure his maiden European Tour victory of the season, to finish on 15-under par and triumph by one shot.
“The most important thing, I do what I like to do in my life, and golf has given me all of this pleasure,” he said. “Winning now, at 48, my goodness - 24 years I've been on the Tour”.
He added, “I still love it and I think that is fantastic, to love what you're doing, and enjoy yourself, keep fit, keep working myself a little bit and stretching a lot, and that's the main thing to do to compete with the new guns”.
It was a straightforward victory for the Spaniard. He entered the final round while sharing the lead with Michael Campbell of New Zealand.
Meanwhile, when Campbell faltered for a two-over par 72 in the final round, Jiménez maintained his form in the tournament and fired another impressive round of a five-under par 65.
Andersson Hed, in the meantime, also made a strong charge on the leaderboard, after carding a bogey-free six-under par 64.
However, his score was not good enough to challenge the in-form Spaniard on top of the leaderboard.
At the end of the day, Jiménez found himself at the 27th place in The Race to Dubai with €910,255 prize money.
Talking to the European Tour’s official website, he expressed his pleasure in building on his strong track record in the tournament.
Apart from this year’s victory, he also won the event in 2005 and 2008. It was also the 12th victory of his career that came after he turned 40.
In addition to that, he also set the record for most European Tour wins in Asia, as the victory at the Hong Kong Golf Club was his sixth on the Asian soil. Ernie Els holds the second spot in the list with five victories.
“It’s very nice - I hope it’s not the last one,” joked the Spaniard.
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