Not because it was expected, since he was suffering from a terrible illness, it did not cease to have an impact. The world of golf as a whole and the sport in general, both within and outside our borders, mourned with heartfelt emotion the death of Severiano Ballesteros, ten years ago, just when the Spanish Open, which he had managed to magnify so much, was being held at the RCG El Prat.
The most outstanding Spanish golfer of all time left us in the early hours of May 7, 2011 at the age of 54, at his home in Pedreña, accompanied by his family, as a result of the disease that had afflicted him since he was diagnosed with a brain tumor in August 2008 after suffering a fainting spell at Barajas airport.
Operated up to four times before starting a chemotherapy treatment, Severiano Ballesteros has been an example of struggle and overcoming adversity ever since.
With a brilliant track record in his sporting curriculum, adorned with all those titles that every golfer craves, three British Opens (1979, 1984 and 1988), two Augusta Masters (1980 and 1983) and three Ryder Cups (1985, 1987 and 1995), plus one of them, unforgettable in Valderrama 1997, as captain, Severiano Ballesteros forged a legend that went beyond the limits of golf to become one of the great icons of Spanish, European and world sport.
Severiano Ballesteros participated in a golf tournament for the last time in Spain at the 2005 Spanish Open. Subsequently, he tried to make the jump to the American Senior Tour, but dropped out in the first round and never played again.
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The story of a great golfer
He went to Carnoustie, in Scotland, in the very prelude to a new edition of the British Open that he himself helped to make so great in his day, to say goodbye, to proclaim to his huge number of followers that he was retiring from active golf in July 2007.
Severiano Ballesteros, the greatest Spanish golfer of all time and one of the truly greats in the history of world golf, acknowledged that the bitter day had come because he had stopped feeling true desire for the golf that had given him so much and for which he had worked so hard to give back as much as possible of what he had received over three decades of glory.
In the same way that it happened in his day with the great characters that have stood out in history for their contribution to their respective disciplines, Severiano Ballesteros’ career still has to be analyzed today with a certain time perspective so that his figure adheres as it deserves to the legend that he forged with talent and effort for more than 30 years.
Not in vain, his legacy was felt immediately: Spanish golf was no longer the same as before; the Ryder Cup was no longer the same and neither was the European Tour, although it had not participated for some time.
The enormous figure of the boy from Pedreña changed golf forever. The Scottish course of Carnoustie and July 16, 2007 were the place and the day chosen by our great Severiano Ballesteros to pronounce the two words that millions of fans around the world would have wished never to hear: “I quit”.
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That boy from Pedreña
Following the example of many myths, Seve’s story corresponds millimetrically to that of a fighter, a person who climbed the highest heights from a humble environment. In his case, his dream began in the small Cantabrian town of Pedreña, where in 1928 a golf course was inaugurated that would change the conception of this sport, both in its game and in its social dimension.
That caddie who began to hit balls on the endless beaches of the Cantabrian coast, fell in love with the clubs as soon as he stepped on the greens of Pedreña. So strong was his love affair that the adolescent Seve used to outwit the resistance of the fences at night in order to play a few holes with no other company than the moon.
Whether because of the difficulties of playing in the sand, for hitting the ball with hardly any light to follow its trajectory or -as many maintain- because of his extraordinary innate ability, the boy from Pedreña grew a superior and sublime talent that would soon provoke the most extreme reactions among the fans, always eager to see how those shots impossible for others became a success in Severiano’s hands.
Not in vain, any performance of Ballesteros, in any golf course in the world, was always followed by a legion of fans eager to contemplate that different conception of golf, far from orthodoxy but characterized by its extraordinary beauty and spectacularity.
Over the years, a former player of the stature of Ben Crenshaw eloquently expressed the Cantabrian’s genius: “he is able to execute shots that I can’t even visualize in my dreams”.
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Genius and talent combined with an overwhelming charisma
That gift -an overwhelming charisma that was evident every time he holed an impossible putt and raised his fist in anger-, was the main reason why a teenager Seve managed to become a professional with hardly any help. It was on March 22, 1974 -without even having blown out 17 candles on his birthday cake- when he took the definitive step.
His very young age was not an impediment for him to occupy the first places since his landing in the ‘pro’ world, getting his first victory in the U-25 Spanish Championship. Fate winked at him and allowed him to make his debut in Pedreña to start a dazzling progression. Not in vain, that same year, he finished with another victory in the Open de Vizcaya and a second place in the Open de Santander.
1976, the key year
Severiano Balleste’s star
ros began to shine in 1976, the year in which that unknown player with an unpronounceable name for the Anglo-Saxons got in among the greats to come within one step of winning an entire British Open – those who were at Royal Birkdale will never forget that chip he rolled between two bunkers to leave the ball a hand’s breadth from the flag and make a birdie on the last hole – and the year in which he won the World Team Cup with Spain in California.
In between both achievements, he won the Dutch Open and took four strokes back from Arnold Palmer in the final nine holes to lift the Lancôme Trophy. Two years later, at the age of 20, he had already won in the five continents, but he lacked that great victory, that ‘major’ that would consecrate him in the eyes of a Spain that hardly knew golf and of an international fan that followed each of his strokes as if it were the last one.
So much magic in each iron deserved a greater prize. This came in 1979, when he won his first British Open, thus becoming the youngest winner of the twentieth century of such an exclusive competition. From that moment on, the ‘big ones’ were falling under the weight of a logic that crossed the pond to land in the United States.
The Augusta Masters, the ‘major’ that only a player not born within the American borders had managed to win until then, opened the doors of glory for the first time to a European golfer in 1980. Of course, it opened them for Seve. Twenty-three birdies and an eagle meant that, with nine holes to go before he wore the green jacket, his lead over the runner-up was ten strokes.
That day, at the same time he pocketed the 18th, he received one of the most exciting recognitions of his sensational sporting career: the bells of his town rang in honor of the champion.
Shortly afterwards, in 1983, he won his second Masters at Augusta, and a year later, his second British Open before adding his third British Open victory to his historic list of victories in 1988. By that time, Severiano had already brought the world of golf to his feet.
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The Ryder Cup, a golden chapter apart
And if we agree, because it is only fair, that players as unique as Seve are a rarity that every fan should enjoy, we must also agree that no other competition is as unique as the Ryder Cup, which should have been opened to make room for the genius and his fellow continentals.
Inevitably, the two were destined to meet and hit it off, even though one of the Cantabrian’s greatest sporting disappointments was his exclusion from the 1981 match against the United States. That disappointment was forgotten with his three victories as a player (1985, 1987 and 1995), his triumph as captain (1997) and many great moments in the form of decisive putts, dramatic play-offs, celebrations and tears.
The high point of the love story between Seve and the Ryder took place in the aforementioned 1997 edition, which was held for the first time in Spain in response to his perseverance in bringing the best golf in the world to the Spanish people, a historic milestone that our sport should always recognize as it deserves.
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Much more than a player
The legend of Severiano Ballesteros was forged, thanks to his talent and effort, by dozens of victories, by 61 weeks as world number one, by countless awards in all parts of the golfing planet, by so many and so many issues that have made his sporting career an example to follow, dotted with historical connotations that will remain in the annals of golf forever.
However, his figure is magnified above all his individual titles when all his work in favor of golf in our country is reviewed. His is part of the merit that today Spain has such a significant number of members and that it can be practiced in more than 400 courses, 10% of them public.
Not in vain, his work towards the popularization of golf is not only limited to the Spanish territory, but encompasses much more. His refusal to play the entire American Tour and his insistence on combining tournaments on both sides of the Atlantic, relaunched the European Tour at a time when it was going through difficulties that were overcome at the time thanks, in large part, to Severiano Ballesteros’ efforts to strengthen the Tour, which led to hundreds of players benefiting from much juicier prizes during all those years.
Although it is true that in recent years his sporting successes had been considerably reduced by his growing back problems, his figure had been resized at a popular level. The Royal Spanish Golf Federation itself paid him a warm tribute in 1999 with the presence of the most important part of his traveling companions in these 30 years of his career.
That tribute only served to settle a small part of the debt that golf contracted with the genius of Pedreña. With the legend of Severiano Ballesteros.
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