Cigars Want to be Smoked by Him...

Neil Sagebiel, author of The Longest Shot, the story of Jack Fleck's improbable 1955 U.S. Open victory over Ben Hogan, blogs at Armchair Golfer.  Neil brings us news that Miguel Angel Jimenez, The Most Interesting Golfer in the World, has turned 50.  He doesn't always play golf, but.....

Neil embeds a video of a MAJ stretching routine.....but frankly, it's just not the same without the cigar.  I prefer this performance from the 2011 Open Championship.

And since we're saluting the Spaniard, how about a walk down memory lane to revisit his most famous golf shot:

We're early in our Unplayable Lies journey, but I can't help using this as a links golf teachable moment.  Most logically assume that Jiminez found himself in this predicament by hitting his second shot long and right.  But he actually hit his second short and left, just short of the infamous Road Bunker (a/k/a The Sands of Nakajima, so dubbed after Tommy Nakajima coughed up the lead in the '78 Open by putting his ball into the Road Bunker and needing 4 to extricate himself).

The soft, high pitch shot off rock-hard links turf is, without doubt, The Hardest Shot in Golf™.  The more you open the blade of the sand or lob wedge, the more you bring the bounce of the wedge into play.  If not pinched against the turf perfectly, the bounce skips off the turf resulting in the dreaded skull and ignominious walk across the green.  Sure enough, The Most Interesting Man in Golf bladed his third just like a double digit handicapper.