Golf:Miguel Angel Jimenez admits that staging the Andalucian Open this week will cost him money because of a struggle for sponsorship. The Ryder Cup veteran, who is promoting the event for the sixth time, has failed to attract a stellar field to the Spanish coast.
“It’s very easy to say ‘Give up’, but I don’t want to give up, to me it’s important that this tournament is going forward,” said Jimenez. "I think the Tour deserve that and the people deserve that. It’s very difficult, but I’m doing the best I can.”
At 51st in the world, the 48-year-old Spaniard is the highest ranked player in the field at Aloha following the withdrawal through illness of defending champion Paul Lawrie. But he told European Tour that out on the course: “My focus is all over the place. This is not easy and the most important thing is not my game.”
Last year in Malaga the tournament had the backing of Turkish Airlines, but this year it is local tourist boards and councils who have helped to keep the first prize at just over
€150,000. That is less than a quarter of what is on offer on the PGA Tour in Florida this week, but given the state of the Spanish economy it is no mean feat.
Ryder Cup captain Jose Maria Olazabal is another late withdrawal because of a foot injury, but the event does still have a former Masters champion on view in Canadian Mike Weir. Winner at Augusta in 2003, the left-hander reached world number three a few months later, but he currently ranks 1,206th after battling an elbow injury.
Weir made only two halfway cuts in 15 PGA Tour starts last year and has drawn a blank in his first three this season. On his last trip to Spain in 2000, though, he won the American Express World Championship at Valderrama by two from Lee Westwood.
The two other major champions taking part have also seen their careers nosedive. European Tour regular Michael Campbell, the 2005 US Open winner, currently stands 772nd, while American Rich Beem, who pushed Tiger Woods into second spot at the 2002 USPGA Championship, is 865th.
However, England’s Robert Rock, conqueror of Woods in Abu Dhabi in January, tees off with his sights set on climbing from 56th in the world into the top 50 in time for next month’s Masters. The cut-off comes after next week’s Hassan Trophy in Morocco.
Rock’s last two events were both World Championships in the States, but going out in the second round of the Accenture Match Play and finishing 24th in the Cadillac Championship on Sunday moved him up only three places on the rankings.
There are six Irish players competing in the field with Michael Hoey, Shane Lowry, Peter Lawrie, Damien McGrane, Gareth Maybin and Simon Thornton due to take part.
