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World Golf Hall of Fame Profile: Seve
Ballesteros
No golfer has epitomized the spirit of European golf like Severiano
Ballesteros. The native of Spain did for European golf what Arnold Palmer did
for golf in America.
Since turning professional in 1975, golf's ultimate competitor has truly
represented golf's global appeal by spearheading Europe's rise to Ryder Cup
glory.
Ballesteros played on a rare combination of talent and heart. His intensity
and style of play have constantly required high-risk recoveries and clutch
putting that drew fans into his corner. His gifts of imagination, touch and
determination on the course helped Ballesteros win more than 70 professional
tournaments, including five majors.
Two decades before Tiger Woods exploded onto the scene as a professional,
Seve Ballesteros was golf's teenage prodigy, dazzling the golf world with a
runner-up finish at Royal Birkdale as a 19-year-old.
Ballesteros made emotion and a brilliant short game his best allies on the
golf course. His magical touch derives from years of practice. As a boy, he
developed his natural motion by hitting rocks on the beaches of Pedrena with a
homemade 3-iron. In his prime, nobody was better at scrambling to manufacture
low scores. Ballesteros won the Harry Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average
on the European PGA Tour six times by erasing mistakes with his short game. Who
can ever forget his famous birdie from the car-park in the 1979 British Open at
Royal Lytham? Ballesteros became the first European to win the championship
since Frenchman Arnaud Massy took the title at Royal Liverpool in 1907 and his
victory confirmed the emergence of a wealth of European talent.
Ballesteros was at his erratic best in the final round of the 1988 British
Open, shooting a 65 that included an 11-hole stretch in which he made two pars,
two bogeys, six birdies and an eagle. He worked magic out of the deep rough and
performed wizardry around the green. Ultimately, he closed out Nick Price with a
brilliant chip from behind the 18th green that finished inches from the cup. Of
that glorious round, which he counts as perhaps the finest putting performance
of his career, Ballesteros remarked, "I knew at the time I won the Open in 1988
that I had reached some sort of peak, that it was a round of golf that I would
think fondly about for the rest of my life."
While his individual record is exemplary, Ballesteros' legacy will be for
pushing golf onto a world stage by moving it onto the European continent and by
making the Ryder Cup competitive. He was the heart and soul of the European team
as an eight-time member and one-time captain. In 1987, the Ryder Cup gained
prominence when the Europeans came to America and, for the first time, won on
American soil.
Seve's tenacity, fearlessness and fanatical desire to succeed helped make him
one of the greatest match players of all time. When Valderrama Golf Club on
Spain's Costa del Sol was selected to host the 1997 Ryder Cup Matches-the first
time for a mainland Europe venue-Ballesteros was the prime force. He was also
the logical choice to captain the team. Even in this non-playing role,
Ballesteros' competitive fire was still the heart and soul of the victorious
European team.
While his star has faded in recent years, Ballesteros will always be
remembered as one of the most gifted golfers ever to play the game.
Lee Trevino may have put it best when he said of the Spaniard, "Every
generation or so there emerges a golfer who is a little bit better than anybody
else. I believe Ballesteros is one of them. On a golf course he's got
everything. I mean everything: touch, power, know-how, courage and
charisma."
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