Miguel Ángel Jiménez sinks short birdie for first Hoag Classic title
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Professional golfer Miguel Ángel Jiménez is a cigar aficionado.
He enjoyed a Arturo Fuente victory cigar on Sunday at Newport Beach Country Club, after smoking the
competition at the Hoag Classic.
Jiménez made a tap-in birdie putt on hole No. 18 to win the PGA Tour Champions event for the first time, finishing the tournament at 15 under par to win by a stroke.
In a post-tournament ceremony on the 18th green, Hoag officials presented him with the $300,000 first-place check and gave him the traditional Doctor of Golf white jacket.
Jiménez, who shot four-under-par 67 on Sunday, became the first multiple winner this year on the tour and notched his 15th win of his career on PGA Tour Champions.
“Two victories in four tournaments I play, 50%, that’s not bad, eh?” he quipped. “No, it’s very nice.”
Stewart Cink of Georgia and Champions Tour rookie Freddie Jacobson of Sweden finished tied for second at 14 under par. Y.E. Yang of South Korea placed fourth at 13-under.
Steven Alker, two-time Hoag Classic champion Ernie Els and Michael Allen were all three shots back at -12.
Newport Beach resident Fred Couples, who won the tournament in 2010 and 2014 and was vying to become the first three-time champion, was even-par Sunday and finished at -11, tied for eighth place with Alex Cejka.
Couples had come into the final round tied for first with Jiménez.
Jiménez acknowledged that Couples, who was seeking his first PGA Tour Champions win since 2022, was the “local hero” and said he enjoyed being in his group all three rounds. Couples, for his part, said he was finally getting over an illness he’s been experiencing this week but that his game had no feel Sunday.
“He’s just great,” Couples said of Jiménez, 61, who finished third at the Hoag Classic last year and tied for fourth in 2023. “He’s great around the greens. [Saturday], a couple of great bunker shots. He deserved to win. It was fun to play with him. I just couldn’t scare a scarecrow.”
Shortly before noon, fans lined the side of hole No. 1 to cheer on Couples, who lives in Corona del Mar. He made a 10-foot birdie putt at No. 2, taking the outright lead as the crowd let out a collective “Yeah!,” but that was short-lived.
Couples gave it back with a bogey on the par-five No. 3, as his second shot found the water hazard to the left. He said it was the first time he had ever hit it into the wet stuff on that particular hole, where he had earned an eagle and birdie, respectively, in the first two rounds.
“I needed to hit a 5-wood, and tried to hit my 3 rescue, which I’ve been smoking,” Couples said. “I just thought, under those circumstances, if I just push the 5-wood to the right, I’ve seen many balls go into ‘no man’s land.’ So I just chickened out.”
The rest of his round featured all pars.
Jiménez, meanwhile, sank four birdies on Sunday — including all three par-fives — and played his second straight bogey-free round.
Couples, Jiménez and Jacobson comprised the final group of the day coming down the back stretch. Jiménez and Jacobson were tied for first at 14-under headed into the par-five final hole, but Jacobson pushed his second shot well left and was unable to recover for a good chance to make birdie. A long birdie putt, which would have forced a playoff with Jiménez, came up well short.
Jiménez chipped his third shot from in front of the green to within a foot of the hole, a shot fitting of a champion.
“I tell myself, contact with the ball, look at the ball, contact with the ball,” he said. “The chip shot is a little uphill. It’s not a very difficult shot, but in that situation it’s not easy. With the tournament on the line, it’s not easy. I know I had to make birdie to win the tournament, and I make it.”
Jiménez, who now leads the Charles Schwab Cup standings, placed his putter back in an invisible sheath, like a sword, in celebration.
As for the cigar? The Spaniard handed it to his wife Susanne before posing for pictures.
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