Better than any of the players, young or old, he knows that hitting great shots and winning tournaments is no longer enough. He recognises the need to win over the people who pay to watch; and he recognises how important it is that the sponsors should go away happy. They, after all, must justify the massive amounts they are pouring into the game.
The Saturday of the Spanish Open he would win in Gerona in May was as good as it gets for Jiménez-watchers. His auburn hair had been touched up for his wedding a week before, while he was on top of the golfing world in the wake of his win on the Champions Tour and his fourth place at the Masters.
He started that Saturday with his circus act of a warm-up routine before posting a 69 which would see him going into the last round two shots behind Belgium’s Thomas Pieters. After handing in his card, he spent 45 minutes responding to TV and media requests before turning his attention to the crowd behind the little media square. He gave them as long as it took to sign autographs and to chat to all comers. Indeed, he spoke to each and every one of his fans as if he or she was precisely the person he wanted to see.
At one point, he glanced across at your correspondent and murmured, “This is something you have to do”, perhaps because he was conscious of being seen to be lapping up the limelight. He need not have bothered to say anything for this was Jiménez being himself.
He is a ‘people’ person, one of the game’s great socialisers. As he himself once said when someone had quizzed him over-long on his score, “There’s more to life than golfing the ball.”
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