Miguel Angel Jimenez gets to honour the late Seve Ballesteros
Miguel Angel Jimenez will take the first shot to honour the late Seve Ballesteros in this year’s Vivendi Seve Trophy on Thursday morning. Traditionally the visiting team is always invited to take the first shot and in this case it should have been Britain
and Ireland, but both the teams agreed that this year’s honour should be given to the Spaniard.
Continental European captain, Jean van de Velde said about their decision to give Jimenez the first shot, “Seve is the reason this tournament exists and after his passing away a few months ago, I and everybody felt that paying a tribute to the man would
be something very important.”
“We decided there would be a Spaniard hitting the first shot of the tournament and who better than his good friend Miguel Angel Jimenez,” he added.
Britain and Ireland skipper Paul McGinley hummed the same tune as Jean Van de Velde, adding, “It was Jean's idea and a very good one. I was very happy to roll in behind it”
47-year-old Jimenez, the oldest player in the Continental Europe team, will be partnered with one of the youngest players in the team, fellow countryman Pablo Larrazabal. The Spanish duo will be going head to head with the likes of England’s Simon Dyson
and Jamie Donaldson of Wales.
McGinley, explaining why he did not pair Clarke and Westwood together, said that he wanted to pair the rookies with experienced players.
“I'm very much aware of how formidable this European team is. It's probably the strongest team they have ever produced, so we are under no illusions whatsoever that we are going to have to play extremely well if we want to win,” he added.
Peter Hanson of Sweden and Raphael Jacquelin of France are up against Scott Jamieson and Ross Fisher in the second match. It was expected that the veteran Darren Clarke, who is also a fellow Ryder Cup member of World No. 2 Lee Westwood, would be pairing
up together but instead the highest ranked player of the event is teamed with Mark Foster, a fellow Worksop golfer.
On the other hand, Clarke has teamed up with David Horsey, who is a rookie at the English Vivendi Trophy. Both will be going up against Europe’s Nicolas Colsaerts of Belgium and the talented Italian youngster Matteo Manassero, who will also be the youngest
ever Seve Vivendi rookie.
Lastly, it would be the Scandinavian pairing of Thomas Bjorn and Alex Noren who will be up against the English duo of Robert Rock and the eccentric Ian Poulter.
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