Oz in Spain

While the men’s game has, in many ways, become tediously predictable in recent seasons, the Ladies European Tour offers a marked contrast: blossoming new talent, exotic horizons and a sparkle of sensuality… all with a rich Spanish flavour.
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José María Olazábal, Jaime Ortiz-Patiño, George O’Grady and Ángel Gallardo (Photo: Getty Images)

It was July 1990, the British Open was being played at St. Andrews, and an earlier (and less bald) incarnation of OzinSpain was sipping a Scotch in the downstairs clubhouse lounge area set aside for press and players that week. (Those were the good old days when press and players cheerfully mingled – some even bought us drinks!) […]

a) That South Korean “pop sensation” Gangnam Style has officially become the first video on YouTube to reach one billion views…

b) That when South Korean “pop sensation” Gangnam Style took over top spot one month earlier (with 805 million views since its launch in July 2012) Justin Blubber’s Baby video clip had been leading the way…

c) OzinSpain actually first performed a remarkably similar “horse-riding dance” in 1982 towards the end of a long and memorable company Christmas dinner – i.e. when Psy aka Park Jae-Sang was just five years old (and, perhaps fortunately, 23 years before the advent of YouTube)…

d) South Korea apparently sees such popular culture as a “potent export force”…

e) All of the above…

Santa María de los Reales Alcázares (Úbeda)

Palacio de Jabalquinto (Baeza)

Jaén is something of a hidden treasure for many visitors to Andalucía. The seven other provinces (Málaga/Costa del Sol, Granada, Sevilla, Cádiz and, to a less extent, Córdoba, Huelva and Almería) tend to corner the market when it comes to tourism in Spain’s renowned southern region. […]

(Photo: Getty Images)

It’s now official: Miguel Ángel Jiménez is the oldest winner on the European Tour. It took two years after his last win (Omega European Masters in Switzerland) but, with 11 of his 18 Tout titles having come since turning 40, few were surprised when the 48-year-old Málaga-born star triumphed in the UBS Hong Kong Open. It was his third victory in the event (following 2005 and 2008) and meant he was six months older than Des Smith when the Irishman won the 2001 Madeira Islands Open. […]

Posing surrounded by black cats, underneath a ladder, in front of a broken mirror… Penelope Cruz clearly was untroubled tempting common superstitions for the 2013 Campari calendar. […]

The people have decided… this hauntingly evocative photo, “Graveyard”, taken by Julie Fletcher at Menindee Lakes in new South Wales, has won the People’s Choice Award in the ANZANG Nature Photography Competition at the South Australia Museum. […]

Marbella’s favourite soul diva, Yanela, has made it through the first stage of La Voz (the Spanish version of The Voice singing competition) and will do battle in the second stage on Telecinco (Wednesday 24 October, 10pm). Cuban-born Yanela, a popular performer during Marbella’s summer gala season, wowed two of the “coaches”, David Bisbal and Melendi, with her version of Aretha Franklin’s Natural Woman – ultimately opting to join the former’s team.

Spain’s King Juan Carlos was presented with a European team replica polo shirt from the 2012 Ryder Cup’s “Miracle Sunday” when he received the three Spanish members of the triumphant team for a private audience at the Palacio de la Zarzuela. Joining the monarch for a 40-minute chat about the event were captain José María Olazábal, vice captain Miguel Ángel Jiménez (also a vice captain at Valderrama in 1997, when Juan Carlos officially inaugurated the Cup match eventually won by captain Seve Ballesteros’s European team) and the only Spaniard who made the team in Chicago, Sergio García.

Margie Abbott says her husband “gets women” – but Prime Minister Julia Gillard begs to differ. “Do you want to know how God turns a man into a feminist?” the Australian opposition leader’s wife asked in a speech in Sydney. “He gives him three daughters… I’m not a politician and I’m not political – but just don’t ever try and tell me that my husband of 24 years and the father of three daughters is on some anti-women crusade. It’s simply not true. Tony Abbott gets women and… the women in Tony Abbott’s life certainly get him.”

Four days later, Gillard’s feisty response in Parliament, attacking Abbott’s burgeoning history of hypocrisy, left him looking more awkwardly SMUG than touchy-feely Sensitive New Age Guy.