Golf Central

On this day in 1966, one of golf's finest but unluckiest golf champions of the modern era was born in Hondarribia, in Spain's Basque region: José María Olazábal.

Breaking onto the scene as a junior, Ollie won the (British) Amateur in 1984 at the age of 18. And it wasn't long before Olazábal made his mark as a pro: Despite a career plagued by bizarre injuries, Olazábal is the proud owner of two Green Jackets, has been a force on Europe's Ryder Cup teams, and is renowned as one of the most creative scramblers of the modern day ...

Aged just 20, Olazábal hit the No. 2 spot on the European Order of Merit, and from there he has been a headliner in Europe, notching 22 wins in Europe. He has also won six times on the PGA Tour, most importantly those two Masters championships. Ollie has captured the affections of golf fans worldwide for his easy smile, his reliability tee-to-green, and most of all for his stunning, cunning short game.

Ollie took his first Green Jacket in 1994, edging the Americans' sentimental favourite Tom Lehman by two shots with a closing 69. Five years later in '99, after overcoming a near-crippling foot injury to win the Masters again at age 33, squeezing past Davis Love III by two shots. (The injury was ultimately diagnosed by German wiz-doctor Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfahrt, who traced Ollie's foot problem to a herniated disc in his back).

In Ryder Cups, Olazábal has been a true warrior, injured or sound: The Spaniard starred in six straight Ryder Cups  from 1987-99, winning 17.5 points out of 28 and forming a nearly unbeatable duo with countryman Seve Ballesteroes that both intimidated and awed their American counterparts. Ollie will be Nick Faldo's assistant captain in the Ryder Cup at Valhalla in September and harbours and desire to captain Europe in the future ... and who can deny him?

Only injuries - and generally they don't affect non-playing captains. Unfortunately, injuries (this time rheumatism) have kept Ollie off the course more often than not in recent years, and his last professional victory was at the Mallorca Classic in 2005.

Almost as odd as Ollie's bizarre injuries, Olazábal is the holder of one of golf's truly weird records: The world-record distance for a holed putt. ... On the way to the '99 Ryder Cup aboard the Concorde, Olazábal holed a putt the entire length of the plane's cabin. (And yes, they did measure these things: Ollie's mid-air putt travelled 26.17 seconds along the carpet, while the Concorde shattered along at 1270 miles an hour, travelling 9.232 miles). That beat Brad Faxon's 1997 airborne feat of an 8.5-mile putt ...

Even more strange, it was on this day in 2007 that NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak, a respected US Navy officer, was arrested on suspicion of attempted kidnapping of another female military officer who was the girlfriend of her lover, Space Shuttle pilot William Oefelein. The case continues, but don't NASA screen people for these type of things? ...

That said, February 5 is a great day to be born if you want to be involved in football, for it's grattis pŒ fšdelsedagen, as they say in Värmland, to the horny Swedish former England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson (60), who is earning respect for his work now as Man City boss instead of his uncanny success with women for once; and to chain-smoking former Romania star Gheorghe Hagi (43), the "Maradona of the Carpathians" (one of football's greatest nicknames).

It's also happy birthday to a pair of Manchester United aces: Carlos Tevez, he of the funky teeth and dodgy transfer back-story is 24, and Cristiano Ronaldo, he of the golden boots, suspiciously large biceps, step-overs and winks is 23. And as much as we hate to admit it, the lad is awfully good. ...

It also would have been a birthday for the American Beat Generation novelist William S. Burroughs (b. 1914), had he not taken the ultimate trip in 1997 and joined his brethren Céline, Rimbaud, Black, Genet, Sartre, Beckett, Miller, Korzybski, Spengler, Gysin, Hammett and all sorts of wacked-out folk we can't even begin to understand. ... 'Til tomorrow ...