Sat, Sep 04 10 12:57 AM
Miguel-Angel Jimenez, like the vintage wine he so adores, seems to get simply better with age and the young guns of the European Tour found themselves trailing the 46-year-old maestro again on Friday.
His 10-under-par 61, capped with two eagles, broke the course record on the switchback fairways of Crans-sur-Sierre and set up a mouth-watering weekend head-to-head with his Ryder Cup teammate, the bang in-form Italian Edoardo Molinari.
Jimenez, who has bagged a place in next month's European team for the fourth time, could even have broken the magical 60 barrier had he managed to add a couple more birdies to his six in the final three holes.
If the Spaniard is in the twilight of his career, clearly no one has remembered to tell the man himself who continues to carve his own jaunty trail on the European Tour with an ever-ready smile for the crowds, greying moustache and pony-tail.
To underline that Jimenez harks from a more carefree golfing era, he sparked up as usual with a huge Cuban cigar following a memorable round even by his astonishingly consistent standards.
"I was definitely thinking about the 59," Jimenez, puffing away on that fat cigar, told reporters afterwards.
"It was a beautiful day and a beautiful score. Tonight I shall enjoy a beautiful bottle of rioja, the same sort as I enjoyed last night."
So much for the early nights and harsh fitness regimes favoured by the thrusting young wannabes he faces week in week out among the game's elite.
TOO EXPERIENCED
Despite his three-stroke lead at 14 under par overall, Jimenez, dubbed the Mechanic because of a love of fancy cars, is far too experienced to consider that his 18th Tour victory is safely parked up in the garage just yet.
Molinari is playing the game with almost indecent ease following his victory under the gun for his Ryder Cup place at Gleneagles in the Johnnie Walker Championship last weekend.
The Italiani had set an 11-under target in the morning with a round of 65. His total was later matched by 17-year-old Italian compatriot Matteo Manessero, the first round leader, who posted a 67 to also lie second.
The pair from Italy are a shot clear of Finn Mikko Ilonen (67), whose only bogey of the day came at the last.
Jimenez outdid the 62 set by Argentine Eduardo Romero 10 years ago by a stroke and bettered his own 27-year career-best by a shot.
He peaked with a quite magnificent five-wood approach to just two feet on the long 15th for eagle on surely on the Tour's most scenic course which is perched on Swiss mountains and hosts World Cup ski races in the winter.
It was the shot of a player still very much at the top of his game. A snowflake could not have fallen here more gently.
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