Miguel Angel Jimenez from Malaga has been awarded as the best Andalusian golfer of the last thirty years, in a ceremony held last night at the Real Club Valderrama in commemoration of the thirtieth anniversary of the magazine Andalucía Golf, dean in the information of this sport in Spain.
Throughout his successful career, Jiménez has achieved twenty-one victories on the European Tour and four on the U.S. Champions Tour, among numerous other triumphs. The 53-year-old golfer, who holds the record for the oldest player to win a European Tour tournament, has won four editions of the Ryder Cup, two as a player and two as vice-captain of the European team.
The Consejería de Turismo y Deporte de la Junta has also received one of the Andalusian Golf Awards, as the institution that has contributed the most to the promotion of Andalusia as a golf destination through the support and sponsorship of major tournaments held in the autonomous community.
Valderrama has been recognized as the best Andalusian golf course of the last three decades; and the public company Acosol, of the Mancomunidad de Municipios de la Costa del Sol Occidental, for its contribution to the environment thanks to its provision of recycled water for irrigation of the courses.
Another award went to the communicator María Acacia López-Bachiller for her contribution to the media coverage of the Andalusia golf destination.
Among those attending the gala were golf stars such as Michael Campbell, winner of the U.S. Open, and Spanish players José María Cañizares and María Parra.
The Royal Andalusian Golf Federation presented, from the hands of its president, Pablo Mansilla, a plaque to the editor of Andalucía Golf Antonio Sánchez in recognition of the 30 years that the magazine has been contributing to the media coverage of Andalusian golf.
MIGUEL ÁNGEL JIMÉNEZ
In his speech after receiving the award, Jiménez recalled that, coinciding with the birth of Andalucía Golf, it was also thirty years ago when he began his career on the European Golf Tour and recounted some anecdotes and memories of his extensive experience as a professional. He spoke of his relationship with Campbell and Cañizares, with whom he shared a table during the gala dinner, and also of the Valderrama course, where he holed an albatross on the famous 17th hole during a Volvo Masters, and where he starred in an exciting play-off with Tiger Woods in the 1999 American Express World Championship, which was won by the American.
“I have the privilege of 30 years on the European Tour where I have had the honor of having played with players who are no longer with us, with Arnold Palmer, with Severiano and with other greats who are with us like Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player… I have seen three different generations go by: with Tiger, with Rory, with Mickelson, with many players”.
“I have had the honor of being with different generations of players and I am still with them… They say that the gasoline has run out – that’s what you all think – but Pisha is still around and I am still there with the banner. I am the last caddie-player and with me those mythical players who got us out of the misery of that time are coming to an end. And we have that great Olazábal who is the first to come from the amateur path. There we are, both of us, very good friends, one from the modern way and the other from the old way”.
“I am very happy with the life I am making, I am doing what I like in life and I live from it, and I will continue to play golf as long as I see that I can be a winner, because what motivates me is to win. The beauty of competition is not only the sport itself but winning, succeeding.”
Jiménez thanked the Andalucía Golf magazine for the work it does for Andalusian golf and expressed his wish that the publication will celebrate “another thirty, another thirty and another thirty years and that the rest of us will see it too. Thank you very much for the work you have done for golf in Andalusia”.
He also thanked the Junta de Andalucía for the support it gives to golf because “it is very important and the only industry that cannot be taken away from here: the sun, the golf courses and the grace that we have in Andalusia and that we gladly share with the whole world”.
JAVIER REVIRIEGO
The general manager of the Real Club Valderrama, Javier Reviriego, said that the history of Valderrama “cannot be understood” without the figure of Jaime Ortiz-Patiño, who was “not only the founder of the club, but the visionary, the creator of Valderrama”.
“I think,” he added, “that the legacy he left is incalculable. We owe him a lot, not only Valderrama, but all Andalusian, Spanish and European golf, and as a result of the work he did we can now boast of being one of the main golf destinations in the world, and this is very difficult and he was the one who laid the first stone.
Reviriego dedicated a few words to Andalucía Golf: “I think it is a great merit to sustain a magazine for thirty years in an industry as small as ours, and that the tenacity that you have put into it has a great value and you are the voice of not only Andalusian golf but of Spanish golf. I am convinced that you will continue to be a reference for all of us in the sector”.
ANTONIO FERNANDEZ
The Secretary General for Sport of the Junta de Andalucía, Antonio Fernández, who was in charge of collecting the award given to the Consejería de Turismo y Deporte, spoke of the importance of golf as a tourist and sports resource in the autonomous community and stressed the firm commitment that the Consejería has made to promote this segment. “We are a world reference,” he said, “mainly by athletes, who are our ambassadors worldwide carrying the name of Andalusia ahead.” He highlighted the fact that the autonomous community has the highest concentration of golf courses in Spain, with more than a hundred, and that in this region you can practice this sport 365 days a year.
MANUEL CARDEÑA
The CEO of Acosol, Manuel Cardeña, said that the public company supplies recycled water to the vast majority of golf courses on the Costa del Sol and works every day to further improve the quality of this water resource. Cardeña also appealed to politicians in general to help popularize golf even more and counteract the false image of an elitist sport that still has too many people in Spain.
In this regard, he spoke of the creation in Malaga of the Golf Observatory, in which Acosol, the Andalusian Golf Federation and the Spanish, the Association of Golf Courses of Andalusia and the University of Malaga “to communicate to everyone the greatness of this sport, this way of life” and inform society of the economic wealth translated into employment that this tourism segment generates for the Costa del Sol.
MARIA ACACIA LÓPEZ-BACHILLER
María Acacia López-Bachiller said she had “the luck and the privilege” of having lived with Miguel Ángel and the other great Spanish and foreign players “transcendental moments” of her career and personal life. She spoke of how Tony Jacklin and Cañizares jumped up and down to celebrate the victory in the 1989 Ryder Cup in Belfry, of the “incredible year” that Jiménez had in 1999 and of the face “of sadness and frustration” that the player from Malaga had when he lost the play-off against Tiger in Valderrama.
He also recalled “the adventure” of the press conferences with Severiano Ballesteros, “because you never knew how he was going to react”, since “the day things had gone well for him he was very funny and even told jokes in the press room, but the day he got his wires crossed, it was a cyclogenesis and he lashed out at every living creature”.
He also had words of remembrance for the Ryder Cup at Valderrama, where Jiménez served as Seve’s vice-captain and which López-Bachiller described as “one of the most special moments of my entire career”.
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