SPANISH veteran Miguel Angel Jiménez has extended his own record as The European Tour’s oldest winner by retaining his Hong Kong Open title in a play-off victory.
Jimenez, who becomes eligible for the world’s senior tours in a couple of weeks when he turns 50, birdied the first extra hole to capture his 20th European Tour title.
“I love this place, I love this golf course, I love the tournament,” said Jiménez, who signed for a closing 66 at the Hong Kong Golf Club as he captured the event for a record fourth time.
“I played so well and I holed some putts, and the one in the play-off gave me victory.”
With 13 victories since turning 40, Jiménez now has his sights set on becoming Europe’s oldest Ryder Cup player next year.
The last of his four Ryder Cup appearances came at Celtic Manor in 2010. He turns 50 on January 5 and would comfortably beat the record of Ted Ray – who was 50 years, two months and five days old at the inaugural contest in 1927 – if he can qualify for Gleneagles next September.
“If I play the way I am playing this week I will be in the Ryder Cup Team,” the flamboyant Spaniard said. “There is one more year to go and now I get this victory here it will help a lot. You never know; I would love to be part of the team again.”
Jimenez also became the second oldest winner on the Asian Tour after the jointly sanctioned event.
The highest placed Aussie was Wade Ormsby (72), who finished tied for eighth on 7-under for the tournament, five strokes behind the mark set by Jimenez, Thailand’s Prom Meesawat (65) and Scotland’s Stuart Manley (68).
2013 Hong Kong Open Final Leaderboard