The best Spanish golfer of all time, one of the best Europeans in the history of the sport and one of the greatest golfers in the world, Severiano Ballesteros Sota, the great Seve, experienced an unforgettable moment in his successful professional career on July 22, 1979, 40 years ago.
The 22 years and 3 months old young man from the small Cantabrian village of Pedreña raised that day at the Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club the famous Claret Jug trophy that endorsed him as champion of the British Open.
Seve could not hold back his tears when he finished his last round and embraced his three brothers. It was his fifth round at the British Grand Slam tournament. In the first, in 1975, he missed the cut, but in the second he almost won after leading the first three days, but succumbed at the end and finished second tied with Jack Nicklaus and behind Johnny Miller, who won with a final round of 66 strokes. In 1977 Seve was fifteenth in the British Open and the following year he finished seventeenth.
But the summer of ’79 arrived and things were finally going to go well for Ballesteros in the ancient tournament founded in 1860. And he did not start off well at all, as he shot a first round of 73, eight strokes behind the first leader of the tournament, the Scotsman Bill Langmuir and one behind legendary figures such as Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson.
Seve was not one to shy away from a bad start, and on the second day he had the best round of the day, 65 strokes, which placed him second in the standings, two strokes behind the American Halle Irwin. Behind and one stroke behind was Longmuir, two strokes behind Watson and three strokes behind Nicklaus.
In the third round the adverse weather conditions were reflected in the results, but despite having both signed 75, Seve and Irwin maintained their positions at the top of the leaderboard, with the Spaniard two strokes behind the American. Mark James and Nicklaus were one stroke behind the Spaniard.
And the big day arrived, and Seve displayed all his magic, while Irwin sank and signed one of the worst cards of the day: 78 strokes. The Spaniard astonished everyone with his approach to the 16th green from a parking lot where he had voluntarily sent the ball from the tee because he knew he could gain distance by dropping it without penalty. With his 70 strokes for an overall score of 283 (-1), Seve took the victory, three strokes ahead of Nicklaus and Ben Crenshaw, who shared second place. His victory was rewarded with a prize of 15,000 pounds.
At the age of 22, the talented golfer from Pedreña became the youngest British Open champion of the 20th century and is still the youngest of the 21st century.
It would be that of 1979, the first of his five Grand Slam triumphs: two more British Opens (1984 and 1988) and the Masters of 1980 and 1983.
Throughout his successful career, Seve won 96 professional victories, including 50 on the European Tour, nine on the American Tour, five World Match Play Championships and two World Cups. He won five Ryder Cups, the last as captain (Valderrama 1997) and six European Tour Orders of Merit between 1976 and 1991.
In July 2007, at the age of 50, he announced his definitive retirement as a golfer. In October 2008 he was admitted to a hospital in Madrid after suffering a momentary loss of consciousness. A week later, Seve himself confirmed to the media that he was suffering from a brain tumor.
The greatest Spanish golfer of all time, the one who debuted as a caddie when he was just 9 years old and turned professional at 17, died at his residence on May 7, 2011 at the age of 54.
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