By Ron Sirak
Photo By Stuart Franklin/Getty Images
October 12, 2008
About half a lifetime ago, Seve Ballesteros was on the practice green at Augusta National Golf Club when a local TV reporter called over to him. "Steve, hey Steve, over here," the talking head shouted. Ballesteros at first ignored the calls, then rose to his full height, strode to the edge of the green and in a calm but firm voice said to the man calling him Steve: "My name is Severiano Ballesteros, and your name is ?" -- and then he used a word best not repeated here.
The incident tells a lot about Ballesteros. He is a man whose pride is as ferocious as his skill with a golf club and is as relentless as his competitive fire. When the rumor was confirmed Sunday that the 51-year-old Spaniard indeed had a brain tumor, the seriousness of which will be determined in a biopsy on Tuesday, it served as a shocking reminder of our mortality, even for the once-seeming Superman who put the entire continent of Europe on his back and dragged it to golfing parity with the Americans.
It was in large part because of Seve that Europe was added to Great Britain and Ireland to take on the United States in the Ryder Cup in 1979, the year he won his first Open Championship (sorry folks, can't call it the "British Open" when writing about Ballesteros. It's about European pride.)
And it was in large part because of Ballesteros' anger at the 15 tournament minimum-event rule required to be a PGA Tour member that he stayed in Europe, keeping a generation of the best players in the world with him, guys such as Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle, Ian Woosnam, Colin Montgomerie, Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood.
If Arnold Palmer gets credit for bringing the Open Championship back to major championship status by traveling to Britain in 1960 to play in it, Ballesteros gets at least equal credit for making the Ryder Cup relevant again and for expanding the borders of golf beyond the United States and Britain to Europe and eventually Latin America, the Middle East and Asia.
Like Palmer, Ballesteros is the entire package. At the top of his game he was not only the best player in the world --three Open Championships and two Masters from 1979 through 1988 -- but he was also a personality impossible to ignore. He disarms with movie-star good looks and more attitude than anyone could ask for. Too bad he and Anthony Kim couldn't go at it in a Ryder Cup match.
Back in the mid-1990s, when Tom Lehman was trying to escape being a constant also-ran, he talked to me about the importance confidence plays in being a winner. Lehman said you can tell a lot about a player by reading their body language.
"Take Ballesteros," Lehman said. "Seve's body language says, 'No matter what God forsaken place I have hit my golf ball to, the next shot is going to be the greatest shot you have ever seen.'" Remember, Seve is a guy who won an Open Championship by making a birdie from the car park at Royal Lytham.
Lehman saw one of the most remarkable displays of Ballesteros' confidence in their singles match at the Oak Hill near Rochester, N.Y. during the 1995 Ryder Cup. They were the opening match on Sunday morning and I walked the first nine holes with them. It was the most entertaining nine holes of golf I have ever seen.
Seve missed the first fairway about 30 yards left and lost the hole. Lehman split the fairway on No. 2 and Ballesteros missed by 20 yards, to the right this time. All Seve could do was smash an 8-iron over the trees short of the green. Lehman played his approach to about 15 feet.
Now Seve has to pitch over a bunker to a short-side pin, an extremely difficult up-and-down. He skipped the "up" part and just went down, holing the pitch for birdie. A shaken Lehman missed his birdie putt and the match was all square.
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