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5 OCTOBER 2008. SEVERIANO BALLESTEROS IS DIAGNOSED WITH A BRAIN TUMOUR.
MAY 7th 2011
It's not fair he had to go
at fifty-four.
BALDOMERO ‘MERIN’ BALLESTEROS SEVE'S BROTHER
It's just not fair.
I know it happens to a lot of people
even many kids...
and I get it,
I totally get it.
But losing your brother,
when he didn't have time to enjoy life, broadly speaking,
as he should have,
to lose him...
and bidding us farewell, on top of that.
That's...
deep and painful.
The house where we grew up
was as modest
as a house can be.
There were
no luxuries at all.
Just the basics, I'd say.
MANUEL BALLESTEROS SEVE'S BROTHER
Maybe not even that, not even the basics.
There were essentially four rooms.
My parents used to sleep in one of
the bedrooms and there was another one
for my two older brothers,
while Seve and I used to sleep
in the third bedroom.
By the way, there was no bathroom,
VICENTE BALLESTEROS SEVE'S BROTHER
no toilet.
The toilet was
the cowshed and
we'd wash outdoors with
a basin we had.
The village was basically... very
hardworking people
and we lived...
some were farmers,
others were...
fishermen.
Everyone earned their living as
best they could.
I'd say he was my father's favourite son
and pretty much the same for my mother, I think.
And he was the youngest, of course.
He was our little boy
and we had to spoil him a bit,
he was pampered. Everyone, I think,
we all did that a bit, spoiling him.
He also regarded his father as if he were a god.
He could see he was very big.
He had been rowing champion of Spain in traineras.
Because of that, he used to consider him as someone truly great.
Besides, my father was very big, with huge hands.
Well, we began playing golf
mostly because our parents needed us to.
They came from a very humble family
and an extra income was always needed.
And of course, you could earn that
income working as a caddie.
At the time, we had nothing.
Not even bicycles, nothing,
nothing at all to have fun with.
And of course, working as a caddie.
There was a caddie championship
every year and that's where the passion comes from.
He was eight years younger, and
I won a very important tournament at 19.
Of course, he was 11 when
that happened. So, he could see
a brother of his
playing a sport like golf
which he also liked
or which he could
come to enjoy.
Did he use to run away at night, as well?
Yeah, even at night, under the moonlight.
Always on the golf course, always
with a club, hitting the ball,
like around midnight or
thereabouts.
Were all the brothers like that or
did Severiano run away more often?
He always stood out, on everything.
That reminds me of the time when he
went to tend the cows.
He left the cows unattended
and ran away to the golf course, to play.
And another time when I was
over there, he threw a ball
at me and hit me right
in the middle of my face.
Where did he throw it from?
Some 100 metres away. I was coming
down the stairs when the ball
struck me right in the face.
My father used to say,
very, very often,
when we were all
looking for him...
my father would listen to all our conversations
and say: ‘leave the kid alone, he knows what he's doing’.
He used to want the family to
have dinner early,
so he could then run away to
the golf course, to play.
The full moon, the stars would be
shining in the night sky,
and so on and so on.
That used to light up the golf course a lot.
He'd really like being on his own.
Actually, when playing golf,
he'd very often
play alone.
Actually,
he'd jump over the
wall of the golf course,
he'd jump over and play
under the moonlight.
He also used to play on the beach, at first.
In the beginning, when he was younger.
In theory, I was going to school.
The thing is that after
the first 200 metres
I had a 5-iron club hidden
and I'd swap the books
for the club, leave the books,
take the club and run away to
play golf before anyone could see me.
Seve's 3-iron was talked about a lot.
As far as I can remember,
he stole it from the caddie master,
who was called Chi,
when he wasn't even a caddie himself.
He noticed a broken windowpane at the back of the house
where the clubs were kept.
And he grabbed one.
The first one that he laid his hands on.
He didn't bother checking to see if it was a 5 or a 7.
It was a 3-iron, but only the clubhead, with no shaft.
And then, when that...
He had to fit it
with a shaft, which he got from the bushes.
His priority was,
once he got an iron
in his hands, to play golf.
And it was as if there was something inside him,
some sort of instinct that said to him:
‘Hey, look, today after recess,
leave school and don't come back until tomorrow’.
And that's what my brother really used to do.
We were lucky.
We had the privilege of
playing a sport as beautiful as golf and
of achieving many things, specially him.
Because Seve was....
as everybody knows,
he became World Number One.
Seve was self-made.
Seve did everything by himself.
No one taught him anything at all.
It all came to him naturally.
He was a genius. He was all pure skill.
He had an unbelievable imagination.
He learned to play with his hands.
With the head,
with rhythm
and with the hands.
Everything developed distinctively.
He grew up, he caddied for several club members.
One of them was Santiago Ortiz de la Torre,
a great doctor and an even better person.
I still remember him.
I'm going to introduce you
to Dr Santiago Ortiz de la Torre,
the best children's doctor in Santander,
and the person who taught me to play golf.
I used to tell him to stand
in front of me and then I'd swing
and consequently hit the ball,
something we referred to as ‘zarpera’ (swipe).
Swipe, yeah.
Swipe, as from a paw.
So, he would see me hitting the ball
and I used to ask him:
‘did you see that swing?’
‘Yes, sir’, he'd reply.
‘Well, if you ever want
to be a world champion,
if you ever want to become a good golf player,
that's exactly what you should never do,
what I just did’.
They used to play nine holes in the
morning on Sundays and then he'd invite
him to watch the local football team,
Racing de Santander.
When we played a game,
I'd give him a head start.
I always let him
lead up to the 17th hole
but on the 18th I would tell him to do a couple of
things the wrong way round, the exact
opposite of what he had to do.
So, I always beat him and
got to watch the match for free every Sunday.
All thanks to this gentleman.
When he was 13 years old, yeah,
13 and above, 13, 14,
I already noticed it very soon, because
he was an outstanding boy when it came to golf.
He was...
the best player that I had ever seen at that age.
Rather, I had never seen anything like it before.
Seve became a lot more mature in
every aspect, in every aspect.
Not just in sports.
Severiano, how old are you?
20.
You're just a kid, right?
Well, sort of.
Maybe you're as rich in experiences as
an older person, is that what you mean?
May be.
Prone to violence?
No.
Responsible?
Quite.
Liar?
I don't think so.
And cynical?
Neither, of course.
He is, rather he was,
a very fast learning kid.
Gary Player, from South Africa, was
the singles champion of this tournament.
Note the hands holding the club
with a perfect technique.
Seve truly admired Gary Player
for one simple reason.
And that's because Seve went
to La Manga in 1972
to work as a caddie
and Gary Player was there.
GARY PLAYER WINNER OF 9 MAJORS
He was bewildered by the
sheer number of white balls lying in
front of him.
Because Seve had never seen
a brand new white ball.
He noticed that he used to work out.
He always carried a set of weights with him,
small weights,
and he already took a liking to Gary Player.
I like him a lot for...
his professionalism and his
determination and above all, for
how hard it's been for him to
achieve what he has.
Seve saw something in Gary Player
that he had never seen in
other players.
Courage, ambition, determination,
which is exactly what Seve displayed throughout his career, too.
I met Dr Campuzano on this very golf course,
Real Golf de Pedreña.
He used to play here.
He was a doctor
and used to come
here every summer.
He was a pretty good player.
Once we had lunch together,
the two of us on our own.
We talked about this and that
and I said:
‘I've got a brother who's going
to be very, very good’.
He asked: ‘how are his finances?
How will he get ahead?'
I replied:
‘well, I'll finance him
as much as I can for as long as I can’.
But he said:
‘no way, mate,
how the heck are you going to do that?
I'll do it’.
His offer came from the heart.
He told me he was a great player,
still a young boy but that he
could be something out of the ordinary.
He then said:
‘he needs some support’.
So, when I had the chance,
I paid for him
to go to South Africa.
He spent two months
in South Africa.
The kid performed fairly well.
From then on, he began getting ahead
and since he's cut out to be
a great champion...
he became Severiano.
That's how the whole affair began.
He never asked for anything
in return, right?
Usually, people say:
‘I'll help you, but on one condition’.
Not in this case.
We played the Spanish Championship
in San Cugat in 1974.
That's when I first met Severiano.
So, we finish playing,
MANUEL PIÑERO EUROPEAN RYDER CUP TEAM MEMBER (1981-1985)
I win the championship and a mate of mine,
Manolo Cabrera, congratulates me
and says:
‘there's a guy here from
Pedreña who's an amazing player,
he's awesome’.
I went to meet him, said hello
and he congratulated me. But he was
very upset, he was nearly in tears.
So, I said: ‘Severiano, what's
the matter? You look so upset...
Didn't you play well?’
And he replied:
‘I didn't play as I expected to. I came
here to fight for the championship
but I didn't succeed’.
I said to myself, this guy
sounds like he's going to be big.
Why?
Because he was daring,
driven, hopeful
and very determined.
All the great players have
something special.
Some may have it in common with
other players, others not so much,
but they all have something special.
Severiano was a rebel.
He was a guy who
told himself, right at the beginning,
‘I'll show the world
that I can beat everyone,
Nicklaus and all the best players in
the world’.
And I think that being a rebel,
being daring, is what
made Severiano achieve what he did.
Because if you don't have it in you
and you're not able to visualise
that you can do it,
then it's never going to happen.
Also, he was gifted
with awesome skill,
commitment, work attitude and
willingness to self-sacrifice.
The day I met Severiano
was the week before
he turned 16.
I met Severiano
that week in Estoril.
I really could see he was a guy...
VICENTE ‘EL CHINO’ FERNANDEZ GOLFER AND SEVE'S COACH
First of all, his physical
condition was very good for his age.
How did it happen, turning
professional at 17?
At 16, rather.
Oh, well, it was a little bit...
Nothing out of the ordinary.
I could have turned professional
even before, at 14,
because I already played
well enough to compete with
Spanish players.
However, there was a rule that
prevented players from turning
professional before 16.
We would go out to play on
practice days and when
we began to see the things
he could do,
it was truly...
As we say in golf, it was ‘wild’.
What do we mean by that?
That he didn't control his drive.
It wasn't accurate,
but then he would make
unbelievable recoveries...
No matter where the ball was, always came out well.
The first tournament I won,
I won it precisely here, in Pedreña.
It was the Spanish Under-25 Championship,
which I won three months after
turning professional. That is, when
I was just 17.
That's when things began to
take off a bit.
I heard that Gary Player
had a plane ready to
fly from Barajas, Madrid.
So, I went to him and
said: ‘Gary, would it be possible,
I mean...
Could you do us a favour?
We're also going to South Africa'.
And we flew in the plane with him.
When we were in mid-flight,
he made me lots of questions.
Seve was sitting facing us.
I was... I was sitting to
Gary Player's right,
next to him.
And he said:
‘well, is your brother
really that good?’
His performance in South Africa
wasn't that great, but then again,
the country was...
Everything was new,
the flight had been very long...
I guess he was just a kid and
he must have felt intimidated,
figuratively speaking.
I believe it was the best thing that
could have ever happened to Seve.
We played four tournaments
in South Africa
and Seve played fairly well, very well.
The background to the British Open of 1976
is something out of a science fiction movie.
The week before
the British Open
my brother was
reaping grass for
the haystack
at home, together
with my father.
What's up?
See? Do I know how to use the reaper, or don't I?
It's fairly well done.
So, a kid
who had been
working on the fields
with his father just one week before,
talking about crickets,
cows, whatever...
he suddenly finds himself
playing the finals
against Johnny Miller.
JACK NICKLAUS WINNER OF 18 MAJORS
His shoes were worn-out.
There were, may be, two
or three spikes missing in
his left shoe.
But that didn't bother him.
I must say that he played
some holes awfully. That much is true.
But others were
flawless, really good.
The fact that he was competing for the Open
didn't strike me as ordinary at all.
It didn't strike me as normal.
Johnny Miller said that it was probably
better for Severiano not to have won
that tournament.
That maybe it would have been detrimental
to him.
I don't think so.
To be fair, I didn't expect it.
I was 19 and had very little experience.
In fact, I didn't win
precisely because of my lack of experience
Also, I didn't win because
I wasn't ready.
Finishing second was better
than winning for me, because that would have
entailed a huge responsibility.
And I don't think I would have been
able to deal with it.
I wasn't ready to win.
He never stepped on the first hole
tee-box thinking about second place,
not in any tournament.
Been able to win it later on was an entirely different story.
That's when he became
world famous, because the
tournament was broadcast
to all parts of the
world.
A STAR IS BORN.
A 19-YEAR-OLD BOY COMES CLOSE TO WINNING
THE WORLD'S MOST PRESTIGIOUS GOLF TOURNAMENT.
The British press was all over him.
VERY HAPPY
He filled many, many pages in the newspapers.
He was asked tons of questions but he wasn't able to
answer them, because he didn't speak English.
They drove him half crazy.
And he hadn't even
won the tournament...
It was a time when great
players seemed to appear
spontaneously.
The counterparts of the
tennis ball boys
OLGA VIZA JOURNALIST
were the caddies, who could
play wonderfully.
Piñero,
Garrido,
the Ballesteros brothers...
Why are you called the Spanish Armada?
I don't know, maybe it's
because of all the tournaments
we've won this year.
That's something we had never achieved before.
I think that's all there is.
We've won 9 out of 13.
Maybe that's why...
All of them, right?
Yeah, nearly all.
Truly...
The Spanish Armada
was a showboat,
manned by a crew of amazing
professionals, true golf workers,
who achieved outstanding feats
that no one
ever heard about.
Well, my style is precisely what
people like. That's why they
come to watch me play.
It's fairly spectacular. People
are satisfied and go home
happily, after watching a
couple of shots of mine.
I'm not monotonous like
most players. My shots are quite spectacular.
That's why I have
a large following.
When playing, he'd do
all sorts of different things.
You can compare it to
Maradona or Messi, for instance.
They used to say he was a wizard,
because he could figure out and to do things that no one else could.
His shots were most spectacular
EDUARDO ‘EL GATO’ ROMERO 1991 SPANISH OPEN CHAMPION
in the most difficult situations.
I've seen him get on his knees to hit the ball.
If he couldn't get under a tree
he would kneel down
and hit the ball out
while on his knees.
Applauses from the public, a brilliant shot by Severiano.
WILD DRIVE
GREG NORMAN TWO-TIME BRITISH OPEN WINNER
In order to show off to the other players
how chill he was before a game,
He would take three balls and balance them
on the palm of his hand,
one on top of each other.
That's not humanly possible!
I tried. My hands are not steady any more,
but not even then.
I've never met anyone else able to balance
three balls on top of each other.
Every time Seve stepped into the rough
JORGE ANDREU PHOTOGRAPHER
he would look upwards to the
pine trees, if there were any.
Why?
Because he took it for granted that he was going to
find the ball and he was already thinking:
‘if I find it over that area, then...’
He was looking for the way out, a gap
in the branches to hit the ball out through the pine trees.
BILLY FOSTER SEVE'S CADDIE (1990-1995)
SEVERIANO H.M. SHOT
1979 was not a normal
year for him.
It didn't find him in a goodphysical condition.
I've got some issues with my back.
Thankfully, I'm quite
strong so I can...
I can keep playing.
I think that I'll play
next week's tournament and
I'll go home to rest for
two weeks.
The car park shot... I wouldn't say
he did it on purpose, but it was
a brilliant strategy on his part.
JACK NICKLAUS WINNER OF 18 MAJORS
HALE IRWIN THREE-TIME US OPEN WINNER
The wind was blowing left to right
and very strongly.
My brother used to say that the
closer you get to the green
with your drive, the higher
the chances of hitting the ball
near the hole with your
second shot or of
hitting it on the green.
That day, his drive was truly remarkable.
However, the wind carried the ball a lot further away and
it landed in a car park.
It was a designated car park because
no one in the organisation believed
that any professional player could
reach the area with a drive.
That's when Vicente told me:
‘if he keeps focused, he's winning
the tournament, if he keeps focused’.
And I told him: ‘it would be odd,
for our brother to loose focus’.
HALE IRWIN THREE-TIME US OPEN WINNER
Usually in golf you can't be certain of a win until the game is over, but
I was sure in 16... When I putted
the ball into the cup, a putt of
about 5 or 6 metres,
I said to myself: ‘this is it, I'm the winner’.
I was as happy as the next man,
at least as much, probably more than anyone else.
We were on the right-hand side of the green. Baldomero and myself
jumped over the crowd, stomping on the spectators.
I bet they wondered where we were going, dashing forward like mad.
We hugged each other and
for the first time in my life I saw Seve cry.
The suffering and endurance
involved in a golf tournament are
very hard to explain and convey.
It demands 4 hours of unwavering concentration,
of non-stop struggle against the course itself
and against many other things.
It's difficult to explain.
For him, the U.S. Masters at Augusta
was like a marriage.
He liked it because the fairways
were quite wide. He used to say
that he didn't have to limit his drive
there, he could hit the ball
from any angle.
Also, he found it
remarkable that
everything was green.
The course was green, caps on sale
were green,
drinking cups were green...
Everything was green.
KENNETH SCHOFIELD EUROPEAN TOUR CHIEF EXECUTIVE (1975-2004)
SEVE WILL SOON BECOME THE SAVIOUR OF THE RYDER CUP
TONY JACKLIN EUROPEAN RYDER CUP CAPTAIN (1983-1989)
JACK NICKLAUS WINNER OF 18 MAJORS
I remember, maybe,
the good atmosphere in the team
and how full of joy everyone was.
BERNARD GALLACHER EUROPEAN RYDER CUP CAPTAIN (1991-1995)
You play for a team and for your continent, for your country
and for the public.
I have competed in tournaments
all over the world and,
to be honest, here is where I've felt the pressure most
and where is the responsibility.
GEORGE O'GRADY EUROPEAN TOUR CHIEF EXECUTIVE (2004-2014)
SEVE DEMANDS APPEARANCE MONEY TO COMPETE IN TOURNAMENTS.
AS A REPRISAL, THE EUROPEAN TOUR
BANS HIM FROM THE 1981 RYDER CUP.
JOHN HOPKINS JOURNALIST
SEVE BALLESTEROS BANNED BY THE EUROPEAN PGA
SEVE, THE SUPERCHAMPION
With the benefit of hindsight,
I think he was right.
Because it is in fact common
practice nowadays in most tournaments,
isn't it?
It's not even a contentious issue, anymore.
But at the time,
it was very controversial
among professionals.
BERNHARD LANGER TWO-TIME US MASTERS WINNER AT AUGUSTA
WEIRD BRITISH EXCUSE FOR BALLESTEROS’ ABSENCE
BERNHARD LANGER TWO-TIME US MASTERS WINNER AT AUGUSTA
SEVE VOWED TO NEVER PLAY THE RYDER CUP AGAIN
1983 RYDER CUP PALM BEACH GARDENS, USA
SEVE WILL PLAY THE RYDER CUP
Seve always had this idea
of taking on the Americans.
1985 THE BELFRY, ENGLAND
SAM TORRANCE EUROPEAN RYDER CUP TEAM MEMBER (1981-1995)
SEVE'S LEGEND IN THE RYDER CUP IS BORN
There's always been
an extra notch of rivalry,
maybe even jealousy,
on the part of the American players.
Fair enough...
As such, Seve never wanted
to play in the US.
He loathed the place.
I don't know if that was because
it was too big for him or whatever,
but he didn't like the US.
The players there didn't stick together, they didn't have team spirit.
Seve was obsessed with defeating
the Americans. That was due, mainly,
to his beginnings in the United States.
They weren't easy. No one made him any favours.
It was made obvious to him
JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL TWO-TIME US MASTERS WINNER AT AUGUSTA
that he wasn't welcome
and that aggravated him big time.
There's one anecdote of a time when
he was getting dressed in the changing room.
He was playing one of the
big PGA tournaments.
So, he was sitting down,
changing his shoes and he could
hear two or three American players chatting
in the nearby hallway.
They were talking
about the tournament
and at some point in the conversation
the name Severiano Ballesteros came up.
They began to question
what a Spaniard was doing
there, someone who, first of all,
didn't have the necessary level,
and secondly,
was trying to,
somehow, take the money off the
American players.
That was really painful for him.
In the US he was required to compete
in 15 tournaments a year, at least. That was the minimum amount
demanded and Severiano refused.
He wanted to be free to play wherever he felt like.
As I already said a long time ago,
playing 15 tournaments in the US and then
coming to Europe to play is really hard.
It's very demanding, can't be done.
He was ready to play 8 or 10 tournaments.
Maybe 10 at the very most.
Also, he wanted to be free to
choose the tournaments, so he could spend more time in Europe
and, therefore, be closer to his loved ones
and to his family.
VICENTE ‘EL CHINO’ FERNANDEZ GOLFER AND SEVE'S COACH
He refused to play
more than five or six tournaments
and that's when he
was banned from the PGA Tour and
had issues with the president of
the American PGA.
He'd lose his temper every time he thought someone
was being unfair to someone else.
He didn't care if the person being unfair was a big name
or had an important position.
He always spoke his mind.
Didn't rely on anyone to convey the message.He'd say it himself.
He was very much upfront, very much upfront.
BERNHARD LANGER TWO-TIME US MASTERS WINNER AT AUGUSTA
They didn't accept it. There's nothing we can do.
It seems they're not making European players any favours, are they?
No. It's the best way to be sure that American players always win.
If they play on their own, they will always win.
I believe that
the American Tour was increasingly
in need of Severiano Ballesteros
taking part in it.
That much became obvious later on.
Because money talks in the US and having Severiano
in a tournament always drew a larger crowd and
increased advertising revenue for organisers and sponsors.
Winning the US Masters is the
most ambitious goal that any professional player can have.
Most importantly, it means beating the Americans in their own backyard,
in a tournament with such a long tradition and so relevant...
It's something very, very special.
The rows he may have had with other players were a joke
SERGIO GIL JOURNALIST
compared to the ones he had with the referees.
JOHN PARAMOR
CHIEF REFEREE PGA EUROPEAN TOUR (1976-2020)
Victory is at stake.
1994 VOLVO MASTERS VALDERRAMA, SPAIN
He's playing against Monti.
It's the 18th hole.
Severiano plays a powerful shot,
the ball flies over the fairway and
lands right by a tree trunk.
But there's a molehill
under the tree.
He would call a referee and the referee would say:
‘no, Seve, you can't do that’.
He would call another one and he would also say: ‘no, Seve’.
Until the fourth or fifth would say: ‘all right, Seve’.
Severiano had a huge respect for John, too. He respected his work,
because he knew it was hard and difficult.
He always respected him.
1984 BRITISH OPEN ST ANDREWS, SCOTLAND
The 1984 British Open in
St Andrews was,
for him, specially
meaningful, more than any other tournament.
St. Andrews is where the first seven
rules of golf were laid out for the first time.
For him, there was nothing like a win in St Andrews.
BERNHARD LANGER TWO-TIME US MASTERS WINNER AT AUGUSTA
He played very well. He played
perfectly against Tom Watson,
a player who had been
climbing the ranks and
was out to get him.
Severiano had an important advantage:
he was playing first.
And when you play first,
there's tremendous pressure on the other player.
Severiano was very good at holding his horses,
as he used to said,
and he birdied in 18. That's when he pumped his fist.
These gestures were turned into his own logo,
when he pumped his fist like this.
He shouted to the TVcameras: ‘I got it in,
I got it in, I got it in’.
I was like: ‘I got it in, I got it in’,doing like this.
The British Open represents, from
my point of view, the tradition,
the history and a much more inventive type of golf.
SEVE, ‘THE MASTER’
1984: SEVE'S PLAY IS AT ITS BEST.
BUT IT WON'T LAST LONG.
Seve left everything when
his father was diagnosed with an illness.
He was terrified of losing his father.
For him that was the most important thing in the world at the time.
When there was only
one possible outcome,
Seve fell apart.
His parents
used to keep his feet on the ground.
They were his connection to an inner essence
that he wished to never leave behind.
He had wanted to win
that US Masters for his father.
Instead, it made him suffer even more.
We were playing with Tom Kite.
Tom Watson's group was in front of us.
And stillfurther ahead was Jack Nicklaus's group.
TOM KITE US RYDER CUP TEAM MEMBER (1979-1993)
We went to 15 and he hit a really long drive,
right on the middle of the fairway.
When we got to the ball, first
we had to decide what club
to use next.
So, we were discussing the clubs.
4 Iron, 5 Iron.
Finally, we agreed:
‘OK, use a 4 Iron
with a softer, more gentle shot,
rather than hitting the ball harder
with a 5 Iron’.
That's what we agreed.
Meanwhile, Tom Watson's group
was, like I mentioned before,
in the 15th hole.
They were very slow.
Jack Nicklaus' group was at 16.
Likewise....
There seemed to be a sort of build-up
of people over there
that made things very slow.
Something odd was going on.
I've never been to a Masters
or to a Major championship
or to any other kind of
tournament where I've had to wait for 15 minutes, at the very least.
That's how long we were there.
At some point
I told him: ‘Seve, let's go for a
short walk away from the green, so we keep warm’.
And this we did.
We walked 70 to 80 metres
away from the green
and came back.
When we got back,
it was Seve's turn to take a shot.
He set up,
hit the ball poorly and
sent it to the water.
I've also had terrible moments,
of course.
If I were to choose a lowest point,
it would probably be the 1986 US Masters.
Mostly because my father had
passed away shortly before and
before he died, I promised him
that I'd win the US Masters in his memory.
That's why it was such a hard, hard blow.
I'll never forget it.
We never talked about that shot again.
He kept his feelings to himself until the day he died.
He never mentioned it to me and neither did I to him.
Pretty much the same happened
the following year, only differently this time.
That was the 1987 Masters,
during the playoff.
He hit the ball to
metres away from the flag,
levelled with the flag.
He putted with just the right strength,
but the ball was a tiny bit too far
to the right. Now it was a metre
and 30 centimetres uphill lie,
an easy putt,
but he missed again.
After that, we headed home.
We walked up the hill
some 15 or 20 metres
in front of me.
To be honest, after I missed the putt in the Masters, I was walking up
the fairway of the 10th hole
when I was offered a ride
back to the Club House.
But I declined because at that time
I felt like walking on my own.
I must admit that, walking up that steep slope,
which seemed steeper and longer
after I had lost,
I was crying.
I won't deny it.
It was the World Cup Match Play.
Before the tournament,
Greg Norman and Seve
went for a game.
1986 WORLD MATCH PLAY WENTWORTH CLUB, ENGLAND
Seve told me: ‘there he is,
this year's winner’.
He must have seen something in him because Norman had
played very poorly at the beginning of their training game.
For the first two holes he seemed
like he was competing in...
I don't know...
like some looney alien Open.
Seve asked me how much
money I had on me.
I can't remember
if it was 40 or
20 quid, but he said:
‘OK, get them ready.
I'll tell you what we'll do.
I'm going to challenge
Greg to see whose
drive is longer,
his or mine’.
I said: ‘Seve, but you know his
is more powerful than yours’.
Anyway, Seve told him:
‘listen, Greg, let's see
whose drive is longer, yours or mine.
Let's bet on it’.
Greg totally smashed his first ball.
Mightiest hit ever. And I said to Seve:
‘there's no way you can reach that long. Not in a hundred years’.
But Seve wasn't happy yet.
After losing his first bet he
said: ‘hey, give me a chance
to break even!’ Yeah, yeah,
whatever, Greg said. And he
totally obliterated the ball again.
Seve was far shorter,
by comparison.
Seve paid him and when we
were walking along the fairway
I was like: ‘Seve,
you've left me penniless!
That was all the money
I had on me.
Why did you do that?’
Greg didn't pull any muscles,
he won the tournament,
I lost my money
and Severiano and I went home.
1987 RYDER CUP MUIRFIELD ASSOCIATION, USA
Severiano approached
Toni and said: ‘Toni,
don't worry, team me up with Jose Mari.
We'll play fine’.
When he was playing with Olazabal
at the Ryder Cup,
he was giving Olazabal instructions.
EDUARDO ‘EL GATO’ ROMERO 1991 SPANISH OPEN CHAMPION
At times he sounded like Olazabal's dad.
He was like, ‘shoot here, shoot there’.
It was truly remarkable. That was
Seve's approach to the game.
Chema Olazabal admired Seve
big time, he always did.
I won't forget when Chema began
turning up to his first tournaments.
I think he's playing very well.
In any case, Jose Maria is
aware that a big tournament is
within his reach. In fact, I'm sure he'll
win one soon enough.
In 1985, the Spanish
Open was played in Pedreña.
JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL TWO-TIME US MASTERS WINNER AT AUGUSTA
Anyway, I had just turned
professional.
We were obviously playing in Pedreña,
Seve's home.
To be honest,
I have to say that I played very well.
In the end it was down to a
play-off, to break the tie.
Severiano obviously
won the play-off.
When the championship was over,
after the prize distribution,
the press interviews and so on,
he took me aside and said:
‘Jose Maria, may I speak to you
for a minute, in private?’
He went on: ‘Josemari,
you may not understand yet what
I'm about to say but
you'll get it when the time is right.
It may have been for the better that you didn't win today
and that I did.’ I looked at him
in shock and said: ‘come on, Seve, you know we're in this to win,
aren't we? I don't understand
why you're saying that’.
‘Don't worry, you'll get it when the time is right’.
Sometime later, maybe
a few months or the following year,
I was playing in the European Tour
and he explained what he had meant.
‘Let's see, Jose Mari.
I told you that because
if you had managed to beat me
at my own home in your first year
as professional, expectations would
have been really high and
the pressure could have been overwhelming.
In the long run, it would have been detrimental’.
That explained a lot
of things, to some extent.
I must say that I've never
met anyone, apart from Severiano's
own family, who loves and
respects Severiano as much as Chema.
He was like...
another brother for him.
We became the best
couple in the Ryder Cup
thanks to Seve, purely thanks to Seve.
In the 1987 Ryder Cup,
in the United States, Seve was introduced as the best player in the world.
And he proved so because Europe won the Ryder Cup
on American soil for the first time in 50 years.
ERNIE ELS WINNER OF 4 MAJORS
Severiano tried to improve his game.
Not because of his back,
but because of the rumour mill and remarks by
some players and others.
Severiano this and that,
he should improve his technique
and so on...
His swing was altered so much that
my brother had no clue what
to do with the club anymore.
BERNHARD LANGER TWO-TIME US MASTERS WINNER AT AUGUSTA
My shots were a lot more powerful before.
A lot more.
Is it because you're getting older?
Well, yeah, that too.
But no, it's because I altered my swing.
I used to tilt sideways too much and it wasn't helping me.
1995 RYDER CUP OAK HILL COUNTRY CLUB, USA
BERNARD GALLACHER EUROPEAN RYDER CUP CAPTAIN (1991-1995)
Severiano spoke with Gallagher
and said: ‘Listen, everybody's written me off.
But let me go first in the singles competition.
I'll hold my ground for
as long as I can.
That should inspire my teammates
to put up a fight’.
In his first nine holes, Severiano
only hit the ball on the fairway
once and once on the green.
Tom Lehman didn't practically miss a single shot.
Yet after nine holes, Severiano
was only losing by a single point.
It was totally unbelievable.
He would hit approaches into the cup,
from the bunkers...
It was unbelievable, it was huge.
It's true that he finally
lost the match. But he held his ground until 16.
It was awesome.
After that game,
Tom Lehman wrote in an article
in a magazine that he had
learnt more that day than
in the many years of his
career as a golfer, up to that date.
When will Severiano Ballesteros retire from competition golf?
Humm, well... the day I realize that
I can't win anymore.
But that's rather unlikely.
He won his last singles
tournament in 1995.
It was the Spanish Open.
As soon as it was over,
he told me...
He hadn't even handed his scorecard in yet.
He said: ‘Merin,
I've racked my
head until it is
about to explode.
This is it, my sporting career is over’.
What will you do when you retire?
I've been preparing for the eventuality.
I'm getting ready. I'd like to design golf courses.
He had a company called Men Corner,
that organised golf tournaments.
And another one, Trajectory, to design golf courses.
'Sancti Petri, with its magnificent
golf course and lush greens'.
Does Ballesteros dream of
the Ryder Cup coming to Spain?
It's not a dream, not a dream.
It's happening for real.
I mean, I know it for a fact
that the Ryder Cup is coming to Spain.
I'm telling you. Take my word for it.
1997 RYDER CUP VALDERRAMA, SPAIN
Severiano was the prime mover. He was
the one that, somehow, made it possible.
The Ryder Cup left the British
Isles and, most importantly, came to
Spain with him as captain.
I've played it eight times already. I hope I will compete as a player again.
But since the Ryder Cup is being played in Spain this time, I think it my duty
to be the captain. I'm very happy. I feel honoured.
His eye for detail was remarkable.
So much so that he had
analysed the American team
to the tiniest detail and realised
that they had more powerful players
than the European team.
So what did he do?
He placed a 40 metres wide
strip of rough some
250/260 metres
into the fairway,
right in its middle.
He told the European team members:
‘Don't be scared,
I've already beaten them’.
SAM TORRANCE EUROPEAN RYDER CUP TEAM MEMBER (1981-1995)
He was virtually ubiquitous.
He seemed to be in every match
at the same time.
He'd go everywhere with his buggy.
He would also get very close
to the American players,
to make his presence felt and
somehow put more pressure on them.
SEVE ADMIRED GREAT FIGHTERS A LOT,
SUCH AS MICHAEL JORDAN.
When he found out that Jordan was
coming to Valencia, he said:
CARMELO EZPELETA MOTOGP CHIEF EXECUTIVE
‘Carmelo, I didn't pay proper attention to Jordan
when he came to Valderrama because
I was focused on being the captain of
the European team.
But I'd like to see him again because
I've got the feeling that I didn't make a good first impression.
Please, tell him that we can go
for a game if he feels like’.
Indeed, finally Jordan
came to Valencia.
When we told Seve he was like:
‘let me arrange a game
at El Saler’.
And so he did.
Michael used to bet on
all his games but Seve
wasn't really into betting. So Michael went:
‘should we bet?’ and Seve was like:
‘Uh, ah, blimey!...
what's your handicap?’
I believe Michael said
his was 7 and off
they went to play.
They finished the game and
I believe Jordan won.
So Seve lost, maybe,
I don't know, 100 dollars
or 100 euros.
I believe that one of the
toughest moments in his life
was when he made
his mind up to retire.
He had been thinking about it
for a long time, you know.
Even though the word ‘retirement’...
made him sick.
He didn't feel like he could keep going,
already at an early age.
That's why he made up his mind.
Usually, a player of
his age and condition
would still be able
to play golf.
We couldn't get our heads around
the fact that a champion like him
would suddenly announce he was retiring.
He was like: ‘I'm not getting through,
I'm not getting through,
I'm not getting through’.
He couldn't put his finger on it
but he felt like...
his magic wand was missing
from his club bag.
One day it dawned on him
that he'd better walk away
while he could... rather than to
keep dragging himself across golf courses.
Nicklaus retired at 68.
Gary Player is 70 and he keeps playing.
Arnold Palmer is 74 and he keeps playing.
No one is complaining,
no one is censuring them. Why me?
I've chosen Carnoustie because it
was ideal.
This year's British Open is taking
place there, kicking off tomorrow. Also, that's where
I first played, in 1975. That's why I've chosen England.
A LEGEND BIDS FAREWELL
I still remember it clearly.
Severiano would come up
on the screen in the players' tents,
hitting a ball, wherever he was playing
at the moment, and the players
would drop everything and watch.
It's been really difficult to make
my mind up about retiring.
It's been a struggle.
My head was advising me
one thing but my guts
were telling me
something different.
This internal struggle
has been going on for about two years.
I've thought about it long
and hard and I've said to myself:
‘it seems that now
is a good time to
bid farewell’.
This year's British Open
is being held in
Carnoustie and I thought...
‘That's a good place to make
a public announcement’.
So, I went to Scotland,
spoke about the way
I was feeling
and... that was it.
I couldn't picture
him without...
being in a game.
He began considering his future prospects differently.
Yeah, he had made up his mind.
But it was all thwarted shortly after.
On the 5th of October 2008,
I went to pick Seve up
from the airport.
I waited for a long time without hearing from him.
He wouldn't phone nor answer my calls.
At some point I decided to go
inside and went into the airport.
That's when I saw him.
He was walking towards me
with a concerned look on his face.
IVAN BALLESTEROS SEVE'S NEPHEW
I said: ‘What's happened?’ But he only said: ‘Nothing.
I'll tell you later. Let's get in the car. I'll explain later’.
First thing I said to him...
I said to Ivan: ‘I'll explain
what's happened in a bit,
because it's no laughing matter’.
I asked him again
in our way from the airport
to the restaurant where we
were having lunch.
When I got off the plane,
I tripped and fell
in the airport escalators.
My leg gave way
beneath me...
I parked the car in front
of the restaurant.
He got off, I turned the engine
off and looked through the
passenger's window. I saw that he was
leaning on another car.
When I got off the car,
the same thing happened again.
He stared at me. I'll never
forget the look on his face.
I was worried. I got off the car,
got behind him and placed my hands on
his shoulders. I said: ‘Are you okay?’
As soon as I did that
he let himself go and collapsed on me.
I got a bit dizzy
and fell on the car.
So I said: ‘let's go to a hospital’.
But he refused, he didn't want to.
I didn't want to. I said:
‘It's no big deal. I'm fine.
Let's have a nice
thick steak for lunch
and I'll feel better’.
No way, we had go to a hospital!
Long story short, we went to La Paz Hospital.
We went in to see a doctor
and then I waited there for
three or four hours.
A nurse finally came out and
broke the news to me.
Seve had a brain tumour.
We are still waiting to hear about
Severiano Ballesteros condition.
He was admitted to Hospital
de La Paz in Madrid on Monday,
after feeling dizzy
and losing consciousness.
I went to Madrid straight away.
I got to the hospital and
went into the ICU.
He was conscious and aware.
He was fine, relatively speaking.
Except for his past
dizziness and the rest...
The ICU nurse
offered me a pill to
calm down my nerves.
It was the head of ICU
who broke the news to me and my son Ivan.
My world fell apart right there.
I flew to Madrid the next day
and spent two months in La Paz
by his side. He then was
discharged and we came back home.
I used to live in San Roque
but moved in with him and
spent two years,
seven months and two days
by my brother's side.
To be honest, I would have never
imagined that someone like him
could come down with
such a condition.
I must admit, it was
devastating, such a tragedy...
The doctors looked
into my head and
that's when I began
to worry.
I was like... what the heck?
Imagine, I was happily going
for a nice steak at a restaurant
and 15 minutes later, out of the blue,
doctors tell me that
I'm having brain surgery.
I was scared.
I said: ‘doctor, I'm OK
with the surgery only
if it's very likely
to have a positive outcome.
But if it's very risky
and I'm going to
end up worse off,
I'd rather not.
I don't want to suffer
as much as my father did
in the end’.
He was very weak at first.
When he left hospital he was very weak.
Bear in mind that he had spent
more than two months in an induced coma.
He had undergone brain surgery four times.
I think he only pulled through because he was very strong.
He would go to the gym he had at home
and walk around the swimming pool.
He used to say that
he had taken thousands of
laps around the swimming pool.
He used to row as well.
All within his
limitations, obviously.
He did everything in his hand
to... to get better.
He recovered fairly quickly at first.
In 2009 I went to Santander.
I gave him a ring and said:
‘Seve, mate, how are you?’
‘Where are you?’, he asked.
‘Here, at El Sardinero’.
He said: ‘Ok, meet me at four
o'clock, at hole one tee’.
He had had a small golf course
built at home and three or four years earlier
he had promised me that
JORGE ANDREU PHOTOGRAPHER
one day we'd play on it together, as I had designed it for him.
We went to the room where
he kept his clubs. He had some ten
or fifteen wedges and he said:
'Which one do you want?’ I asked back:
'Which one are you having?’ He said:
‘this one’, so I said: ‘I'll
have it then’. He was like:
‘What a smart arse you are! OK,
fair enough, I'll get the other one’.
‘It must be the good one, the one I got,
right?’, I said. And he replied: ‘no,
I've got the good one in the end,
because I knew exactly what you were
going to say, so yours is worse now’.
He can't stand losing, not even at ludo.
Really good.
Great, mate!
Great ball.
Damn!... You hit it out of bounds!
We played with a broken tee.
I'm giving you this tee for the second time.
I said: ‘Seve, mate,
this tee is broken’.
‘Never mind’, he said.
‘You have to play golf with whatever
you have. Take it or leave it’.
Okay, but I wanted to squeeze it a bit.
In golf, as in any other sport,
you have to take any advantage
that the game may offer.
Yes, sir! You're absolutely right.
I don't mind being right, I want you to do it.
It was a wonderful afternoon.
Seve and I played side by side.
It was amazing, awesome.
He taught me to hit wedge shots.
Right foot, open face...
That's it, that's it, a little
higher, that's it, good.
The ball closer to the
right foot, that's it.
Oh, I see, I see.
Now, smash it,
that's it.
I will never forget it.
At some point, there was only
one possible outcome.
He improved at first
but then he
got worse again.
When this happened, doctors
said there was nothing
else they could do.
Severiano always called me Merin.
Merin this... Merin that...
Merin whatever...
Merin do this,
we have to do that...
When he was ill
he began to call me brother.
We shared some difficult
but very meaningful moments
in his final years.
I've got
mixed feelings about them.
It was hard, but at the same time
it was... special, unique.
There were instances in his house...
For instance, I remember
the time when we were watching
the last day of the British Open at
Turnberry. Tom Watson came close
to winning at 59 years of age.
We were watching all the shots
and he suddenly got up
from the couch and started
doing push-ups.
And he said: ‘listen, Jose Maria,
I have to get fit again, I have to get
strong, I have to get well’.
I was driving to my place
after leaving the house
and I couldn't stop thinking,
throughout the two-hours long drive,
about what we had
experienced in the afternoon.
I couldn't but think that a chapter
in history was about to end...
MAY 7th 2011
I was already playing
in the US by then.
That's where we learnt about the news.
I was playing at hole 9 in a
tournament in the United States,
ready to hit second shot.
Suddenly, the horn went off.
Usually, that means the game has to stop,
either suspended or whatever.
So the horn was sounded.
‘But it's sunny’, I kept wondering.
‘But that's not possible!’ One tends
to think that people like him can't die, right?
That they never die.
Seve's funeral took place on May 11th 2011.
True, Seve used to say
that he wanted to
depart this world
alone.
He used to say: ‘I came to this world
on my own, I want to leave it on my own’.
However, that was plainly impossible.
The funeral was sad but
at the same time
it filled me with joy.
Mainly because of what I saw and
because of the crowd in attendance.
There were caddies, players...
It was a symbolic representation
of Severiano's strength,
of his charisma, of what he did
for this sport,
of all the love he received,
despite the many rows
he had with the
PGA, with the European
Tour, with referees.
He used to like magnolia trees a lot.
He planted a magnolia tree in his garden. It's now grown to be huge.
That's where he wanted
his ashes to rest.
He fought really hard, like
really, really hard yet
he never complained.
I never heard him say:
‘listen, I'm fucked up’.
No, no, no, no.
I think he was very brave, no doubt about it.
Very brave!
I don't know if I'd be able to bear it like he did...
Anyone who thinks he enjoyed a life full
of luxuries, money and that is wrong,
totally wrong.
Seve was happy on a golf course
no matter how good or bad his game was.
The golf course was...
his habitat.
I've only had one love in my
life and that is golf.
I've felt real passion
for golf.
I took it with me
wherever I'd go.
If I went to the cinema,
I'd be thinking about golf.
I'd go to bed
and think about golf.
3 BRITISH OPEN
2 GREEN JACKETS
5 WORLD MATCH PLAY
5 RYDER CUPS
2 WORLD CUPS
91 TOURNAMENTS IN FIVE CONTINENTS
EVEN ONE MORE, THE 92ND, AFTER LEAVING US.
It's difficult to explain
what we lived through during that week.
2012 RYDER CUP MEDINAH, USA
What happened in Medinah
had never happened before
in the history of the Ryder Cup.
At a certain point on Saturday afternoon, we had virtually
no chance of winning the Ryder Coup.
What happened on Sunday
was short of a miracle.
I don't know who was flying those planes.
I'm pretty sure there
had to be more than one, in order to
write that message across the sky.
I don't know, and I don't
think I'll ever find out.
But I want to thank them,
because they made
something very special
possible on
that Sunday.
We began putting into the cup
from every angle, approaches from
every distance...
We began to win matches.
We made an
amazing comeback.
In the end, we managed to
win the Ryder Cup, even though
the Americans had
already celebrated their victory
on Saturday night.
Considering the way we hit approaches into the cup,
I believe he was somehow involved.
it was present at Medinah,
and it helped
us a lot.