Seve Ballesteros

~ ~ Ever since Seve Ballesteros, the charismatic Spaniard, burst into prominence in the British Open at Royal Birkdale way back in 1976, he has been thrilling the golfing world with his flamboyant adventures on the golf courses of the world.
He didn’t win that tournament. An American golfer called Johnny Miller (now a renowned golf commentator in the States) pipped him at the post.

~ ~ But the young Spanish golfer immediately captured the hearts and minds of the golfing public.
Why? Well, Seve was never what you could describe as your common or garden professional, splitting fairways with their drives, and conservatively playing the percentages on the golf course. Seve did everything his own inimitable way.
No drive was ever tentatively hit. Instead he attacked the golf ball with gusto, giving every shot 110% effort. As a result, his shots could, and often did, end up so off-target, that one famous American professional was prompted to say that Seve often played a golf course with which nobody else was familiar!
His ball often ended up in places that were only there to make up the scenery, and which were never intended to be an integral part of the course.
The golfing audiences loved this style of play, and almost from the very start of his long and illustrious career, Seve was a firm favourite of golf fans the world over.

~ ~ What Seve lacked in ball striking accuracy, he more than compensated for with pure, unadulterated natural talent.
He comes from a golfing family, (his three brothers are also golf professionals) and was reared on the “wrong side of the tracks” in his native Spain. There was no pampered upbringing for Seve. Instead he learned his trade hitting golf balls on the beach, with an old cut-down three iron, and sneaking over the fence to illegally play the exclusive courses that he couldn’t possibly afford to join.
To this day this natural talent stands him in good stead. I’ve often watched him playing exhibitions, and “trick” shots, and doing things with a golf ball that no other golfer would even THINK about attempting.

~ ~ What made Seve a true champion were two attributes. His completely unquenchable desire to be a winner, and a short game around the greens that could only be described as a gift from the golfing gods!
When he played a shot from about 100 yards or closer to the flag, nine times out of ten he would leave himself a tap-in putt. (Lots of times he didn’t even NEED the putter!!)
So he was able to scramble his way around a golf course like nobody else, and when he played to his best, was virtually unbeatable.

~ ~ His record of achievement bears testimony to this.
He has won no fewer than 87 titles worldwide, and five Major Championships.
The British Open, the world’s most prestigious title, has been in his grasp on three occasions, (1979, 1984, and 1988) and he captured the US Masters title twice, in 1980 and 1983.
He played a huge part in reviving European dreams in the Ryder Cup matches between Europe and the USA. His partnership with another superb Spanish golfer, Jose Maria Olazabal, became legendary, and it was this partnership that the American golfers most dreaded playing against in the Ryder Cup.
When he no longer qualified for the side, he went on to successfully captain the European Ryder Cup team at Valderrama in Spain in 1997, where he played a truly inspirational role in winning the match.
He was also the first European golfer to break the £1 million, £2 million, and £3 million barriers in overall career earnings on the European Tour.

~ ~ So Seve has “earned his spurs” in the golfing world, and truly deserves to be ranked right up there alongside the greatest names in the sport.
But I’m sorry to have to end this glowing eulogy about one of golf’s favourite players on a somewhat sour note.
Seve last won a serious golf tournament way back in 1995, (the Peugeot Open in Spain) and since then his golf game has been in terminal (??) decline.
He still has his natural ability around the greens, but since then he has being getting into so much serious trouble with his shots from the tee that it has become virtually impossible for him to post any sort of respectable scores on a regular basis.
My own opinion is that this is caused by his inability to adapt his free flowing and natural golf swing to compensate for the less flexible joints and muscles that are the curse of old age. He still thinks he is the young, swashbuckling Spaniard of thirty years ago, and simply cannot bring himself to play the game in a more conservative fashion!

~ ~ Now and again we still get glimpses of the Seve of old, like when he beat Colin Mongomerie not once, but TWICE, in recent matches in the “Seve Trophy”, an annual match between Continental Europe and Great Britain and Ireland, and named in his honour.
But in general he has become something of an embarrassment to his fellow professionals on the European Tour, often shooting scores in the mid to high 80’s.
This came to a head only two weeks ago during the Italian Open.
Seve had managed to (just) make the mid-way cut in the tournament, this in itself being a rare feat on his part in recent times.
In the third round, he was approached by a rules official, and given a formal warning for slow play, which was followed by the imposition of a one stroke penalty when he persisted in taking far too long to play his shots.
Seve went ballistic, and even went so far as to alter his scorecard, which resulted in his immediate disqualification from the tournament.
He went on to castigate the Tour officials in the media, and to anyone who would listen, saying that the golfing public came out to watch him play golf, and not to see some petty official enforcing petty rules.

~ ~ Sorry mate! Come again! The petty rules about slow play that you scathingly refer to were put in place for the benefit of ALL your fellow professionals, and as a result of a typical round of golf on the European Tour taking somewhere between five to six hours to complete. (An average round should take about three to four hours, by the way)
Nobody, not even the esteemed and revered Seve Ballesteros, is above the rules, and entitled to special exemptions or privileges.

~ ~ I honestly think that now is the time when Seve should seriously consider giving up playing golf at the top level.
This type of incident, and the growing dissatisfaction of other players and officials on the Tour in regard to this sort of childish behaviour, is the last straw.
You are in danger of tarnishing forever the fabulous reputation that you have established throughout the years, and in the process damaging the game of golf itself.
And that’s something that I would HATE to see happening.

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Copyright KenJ May 2003

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