	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 24, 2017

Miguel Angel Jimenez

Washington, D.C.

JOHN DEVER: Welcome everybody to the 78th KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship. I would like to welcome Miguel Angel Jimenez and thank him for being with us and let's start with your schedule. You live a complex life playing on both sides of the Atlantic, why was this the time and the place for you to debut this championship.

MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: Yeah, well I just ended up playing on two sides, no? Here and there on the European Tour. And now mainly I play more now here in the States. I decide to play here, like I'm going to play around 20 tournaments this year here on the Champions Tour, and I play probably five or six tournaments on the European Tour. My first time playing at the PGA and I know I missed the last three PGAs on the Champions. I always play in Wentworth. In Wentworth we play our PGA on the main tour. That is the flagship tournament of the European Tour, sponsored by BMW. And it's always nice to play at Wentworth and they are always very, very kind to me to, I'm very pleased to play Wentworth, no? And that's why I didn't play before the PGA here on the Champions Tour. But this year I've already played a few tournaments there and I've been there for 28 years coming to play at Wentworth and I think it's a nice thing to start moving to the Champions Tour.

JOHN DEVER: Well we're glad to have you. Judging by what happened last month, you won in Mississippi, so your game in good form at this point?

MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: I'm hitting good. Still hitting good. No, every year -- this is my fourth year on the Champions Tour and I've won every year a tournament. That's nice. And the end of March it was?

JOHN DEVER: It was in April.

MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: Third week in April, yeah, I played, I won in Mississippi. That's a great golf course. I like it very much. I didn't play too bad there. And at the moment I'm hitting good, keeping the same mood, the same form. The only thing you need to do is roll sore putts in the hole to be up there.

JOHN DEVER: See what happens this week. Questions, please?

Q. Have you ever met President Trump and what are your thoughts on playing at a golf course owned by the president?
MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: No, well, I met him once a few years ago when we play at the Doral I think it was two or three years ago. It's nice to play here, the complex is a beautiful golf course. This is in superb condition and it's a nice golf course. And so we're focused on that.

Q. What were your thoughts on Sergio Garcia winning the Masters this year?
MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: Well it's amazing. He deserves it. He played so many Majors and has been in contention in a lot of them and he deserves this. It's coming late, probably, but you see Mickelson also won his first Major at 37. Now I think he has six or seven Majors. Now Sergio just opened the box and we hope that it's not the last one. He's got the game, he's got the power and the skill to win more Majors.

Q. It's a big year for Spanish golf. You won in the Champions Tour. Garcia won in the Masters and you have a lot of good Spanish players on top. What do you think is going to happen this year for Spanish golf?
MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: Ver well. We have several victories already this year around the world and we hope to continue in the same mode. All of us are playing well, obviously here we are, we are have five Spanish who play here on the PGA and we hope to be in contention on the weekend on this week and then we'll see what happens with the rest of the year. I think that the Spanish golfers, I think they're healthy at the moment and I hope, we hope that we have some more victories.

Q. How is it to have Jose Maria with you now every week?
MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: It's nice for me because I, it's nice to have a someone who you can talk to and have dinner with and apart from my wife is always with me also or majority of the time. But it's nice. It's nice to have him here. He's also more than 30 years playing on the around the world and he's 51 now and it's time for him also to come to the Champions Tour and enjoy it, because the Champions Tour is a great TOUR.

Q. How does this course suit you? Do you like the course?
MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: I like it very much, the golf course. It's a very nice golf course. The rough is tough, you need to hit it pretty good from the tee and even the fairways is generous fairways but still you need to hit it good from the tees. It's a long golf course from the back, it has all kinds of distance. And the greens are nice. There's a lot of movement on those greens. You need to be on the low part of the green because you know you can have a very difficult putt, fast putts. I think I think it's going to defend itself very well. It's a great golf course.

Q. You played the PGA TOUR for a season I believe in the early 2000s and you didn't enjoy it, you ended up going back to Europe and that's when you had some of your greatest success throughout your 40s and even into your 50s. What's different about the Champions Tour and why are you enjoying now playing in the U.S.?
MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: Well, I enjoy very much now probably because after I took a couple years -- I had a couple good years back in the 2000s and I enjoy playing the golf courses, because I enjoy to compete. But I don't feel my place here. I never got to feel that. And now I feel like I'm part of it. I feel much better now. Probably also now you're on the way back, you know? We can say that, no? And you know it's different times, different tour. Probably same faces, but there are a lot of faces that you didn't see for many years that you're going back to the Champions Tour. And I really enjoyed it. I think it's much more, probably it's a little more relaxed. Very competitive. Very nice. But I don't know you go there, it's a little bit different, probably.

Q. Do American fans and galleries know you a little bit better now, does that make it easier to play over here?
MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: Obviously with the years going by people know you better probably. And it's nice, but I never had any problem or issue with the galleries, they're always very nice. Obviously they are supporting their own people like all over the world. And you have understand that and respect that and that's what we're doing and I think that the people here are very nice, they're supporting the golf, they're supporting the events and it's very nice. It's very good.

Q. Can you describe your unique warm-up routine for us on the range.
MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: Well, it's always nice to get flexible. What you see on the range is now it's a like a slow, like a refresh what you're doing. But every morning when I wake up first thing is go to the gym and do the proper exercises. Go through like a 15 or 20 minutes through the elliptical or running there and exercise with elastic bands and things to get yourself going on. What you see on the driving range is after that moment to the driving range it's, you have a shower, you have your breakfast, you travel to golf course, whatever, it's time to do it again. It needs to be refreshed. But the people like it, the people enjoy it. I don't mind. We are showmen. We have to put some smiles to the people and the same time you refresh yourself, you make like with one shot you kill two birds.

Q. The last few years you've kind of become known as the most interesting man in golf. A takeoff on those beer commercials, I believe. What is it off the course that makes you so interesting and such a traction?
MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: I don't know, I don't know, some people say that. The people -- I think they say it, but I don't know. What I do in my life is I never hide what I'm doing. I love the game of golf, I love to compete because I keep competing here and it's a thrill. I like to enjoy my life and I don't hide it. I like to have my glass of red I have my glass of red if it's tempranillo from Rioja, it's even better. I smoke, I smoke my cigars. I don't hide myself what I'm doing, what I like to do in my life. That's me. I don't know if I'm interesting or not, but I see so many people that I don't want the people looking at me when I have my drink or have my smoke they think, it's freedom. I have freedom to do what I want to. It's not forbidden.

JOHN DEVER: I've got to ask you about, what are you thinking about this shorts phenomenon we have here for the practice rounds. Being able to wear shorts? Are you taking part in that today?

MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: I don't know why.

(Laughter.)

JOHN DEVER: Do you like it?

MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: No, it's fine. It's nice, no? The weather is good, why not? It's not very hot, but it's not cold. It's nice. People like to go in shorts. Whatever the people do. It's good. It's nice.

JOHN DEVER: Okay. Thank you for your time enjoy your week in the nation's capitol and maybe we'll see you later. Thank you.

MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: Thank you very much. Enjoy the week.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297