Miguel Ángel Jiménez (-2) usually doesn’t go unnoticed. He is a rebellion that does not cease against time, a vaccine against irrelevance. The man from Malaga, with sixty years on his back, reappears this week at the DP World Tour for the first time in the season and already reaches 722 tournaments in this circuit (David Howell, with 723, holds the record that he snatched a few months ago from the Spaniard), but he doesn’t just come to show off his record and greet old friends, which also. He comes to compete and usually leaves something more than sample buttons of what he was and still is.
He did it today at the Golfclub Munchen Eichenried, an old acquaintance of his and the European circuit, venue of the BMW International Open, whose first day has left us with the Australian David Micheluzzi (-6) as the sole leader. Jiménez has signed a round of 70 strokes, which is not bad at all, but he has also been one of the scarce four players who has closed the round without a single bogey on the card.
And it is true that the man from Churriana holed a good nine-meter cigar for birdie on hole 12. And that, especially for the first nine, he has managed to get out of some certainly delicate situation. But it is also very true that Miguel has left very good birdie options on the road that could well have taken him to the very top ten of the tournament. For example, in the final stretch of his round, holes 15 and 16, he missed birdie putts from distances that did not exceed a meter and a half. Also, by the way, in that first half of the course he had left other good opportunities, at least two on holes 5 and 6. In other words: he has even been over the top.
We will see if tomorrow, coming out in the morning shift, which is usually slightly more benign, he has to row against the current, which could happen, or he continues focused towards the top of the table, but today, just like Bernhard Langer (-1), what he has done has been to give one more lesson. It’s incredible, and maybe just a mere coincidence, but the result of Miguel, that 70-stroke card, has been the best that a Spanish player has signed today in German lands, tied with Pablo Larrazábal (-2). The Andalusian will be whatever you want, but almost never irrelevant.
