OLYMPIANS AND JIMENEZ
Women tee up support
He is, according to his nickname anyway, The Most Interesting Man in Golf.
During Thursday’s pro-am action at the Shaw Charity Classic, Miguel Angel Jimenez strolled the fairways at Canyon Meadows with three of Calgary’s most decorated female athletes.
The 54-year-old from Spain even mugged for a photo with their collection of Olympic keepsakes — three gold medals and a pair of silvers.
“Very heavy,” Jimenez said with a grin.
It’s a good thing his playing partners — Cheryl Bernard, Cassie Campbell-Pascall and Kerrin LeeGartner — didn’t also bring their haul of medals from other international showdowns. The weight might have snapped his neck.
Lee- Gartner made history at the 1992 Albertville Olympics, becoming the first Canadian skier to win downhill gold.
Campbell-Pascall captained Canada’s triumphant women’s hockey team in 2002 and 2006. Now an analyst for Sportsnet’s coverage of the Calgary Flames and other NHL action, she also played a part in Canada’s second-place finish in 1998.
Bernard skipped the home country to a silver showing in 2010 and also served as an alternate for Rachel Homan’s rink at the Pyeongchang Games in February.
Allan Markin, vice-chairman of the Shaw Charity Classic’s Patron Group, was the only golfer in this high-profile pro-am posse not able to pull his/ her hair back into a ponytail.
“It’s really interesting whenever you put a group of athletes together at any charity event or celebration. I mean … I can relate so much to Kyle Shewfelt, who is a gymnast and a Summer Olympian,” said Lee-Gartner, who is capable of piling up pars and proved it with her win at the Calgary Golf Association’s Senior Amateur in 2017. “Just the journeys that we’ve had in trying to reach excellence and the struggles and the successes, all of that is very relatable.”
A 21-time winner on the European Tour, Jimenez might not be able to fire a slapshot top shelf or draw to the button, but Thursday ’s company agreed there was plenty of common ground.
“The (similarity) is that you are very competitive and very focused on doing the thing properly,” Jimenez said.
“It’s that dig-deep grit — you can see it,” Bernard said. “Every now and then, when we needed something, that other side of Cassie comes out. Or that other side of Kerrin, who is already an exceptional golfer. It was my shot on No. 18, to be on the green in three, which was just incredible for me.”
Starting with Friday ’s first round of the 54-hole shootout, it’ll only be the PGA Tour Champions pros and their caddies inside the ropes at Canyon Meadows.
With all due respect to defending champion Scott McCarron or any of the five World Golf Hall of Famers in the field, Jimenez should top any list of likely favourites to leave town Sunday with the trophy.
After all, he owns a slice of the course record after a spin of 9-under 61 at the 2015 Shaw Charity Classic. He was the runner-up last summer, finishing just one stroke back of McCarron.
And Jimenez has been a machine — his other nickname is The Mechanic — so far this season, winning two senior majors and arriving in Calgary as the leader in the Charles Schwab Cup standings.
“I’m here to do my best and try to win the tournament,” he said with a shrug. “For every player, that’s the focus.”
After Thursday’s hoot, there is little doubt who some of Calgary’s most accomplished female athletes will be rooting for.
“Any single week, that guy is a favourite,” Lee-Gartner said of Jimenez. “The character that he is and the person that he is and what he does for the sport, it’s just outstanding.”