Seve Ballesteros

Hometown

Pedrena

Year Inducted

1999

Inducted Category

Competitor

Birthdate

Apr 09,1957

Date Deceased

May 07,2011

Major Championships: 5

Open Championship: 1979, 1984, 1988
Masters Tournament: 1980, 1983

Additional PGA TOUR Wins: 4

1978: Greater Greensboro Open
1983: Westchester Classic
1985: UF&G Classic
1988: Westchester Classic

European Tour Wins: 45

1976: Dutch Open
1977: French Open, Uniroyal International, Swiss Open
1978: Martini International, German Open, Scandinavian Open, Swiss Open
1979: English Golf Classic
1980: Madrid Open, Martini International, Dutch Open
1981: Scandinavian Open, Spanish Open
1982: Madrid Open, French Open
1983: Sun Alliance PGA Championship, Irish Open, Lancome Trophy
1985: Irish Open, French Open, Sanyo Open, Spanish Open
1986: Dunhill British Masters, Irish Open, Monte Carlo Open, French Open, Dutch Open, Lancome Trophy
1987: Suze Open
1988: Mallorca Open De Baleares, Scandinavian Open, German Open, Lancome Trophy
1989: Madrid Open, Epson Grand Prix, Ebel European Masters-Swiss Open
1990: Open De Baleares
1991: Volvo PGA Championship, Dunhill British Masters
1992: Dubal Desert Classic, Turespana Open De Baleares
1994: Benson
1995: Spanish Open

Additional Wins: 40

1974: Spanish National Championship for under 25s, Open de Vizcaya
1975: Spanish National Championship for under 25s
1976: Memorial Donald Swaelens, Cataluña Championship, Tenerife Championship, Lancome Trophy, World Cup of Golf
1977: Otago Classic, Braun International Golf, World Cup of Golf, Japan Open, Dunlop Pheonix
1978: Kenya Open, Spanish National Championship for under 25s, Japan Open
1979: Open el Prat
1981: Australian PGA Championship, Suntory World Match Play Championship, Dunlop Phoenix
1982: Masters de San Remo, Suntory World Match Play Championship
1983: Million Dollar Challenge
1984: Suntory World Match Play Championship, Million Dollar Challenge
1985: Spanish Championship for Professionals, Suntory World Match Play Championship, Campeonato de España-Codorniu
1987: APG Larios, Campeonato de España Para Professionales
1988: APG Larios, Visa Taiheiyo Masters
1991: Toyota World Match Play Championship, The Crowns
1992: Copa Quinto Centenario per Equipos, Fifth Centenary Cup
1995: Tournoi Perrier de Paris
2000: Seve Trophy
2006: Royal Trophy
2007: Royal Trophy

Ryder Cup Appearances: 9

(Wins in bold)
Player: 1979, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995
Captain: 1997

Awards & Honors

Golf
Order of Merit, European Tour: 1976, 1977, 1978, 1986, 1988, 1991
Vardon Trophy: 1976, 1977, 1978, 1986, 1988, 1991
Golf Writers Trophy: 1979, 1984, 1991
Ebel Golfer of the Year: 1983
Honorary Member, The European Tour: 1983
International Personality of the Year, BBC TV SPORT: 1984
All America Trouble Play, GOLF Magazine: 1985
Golfer of the Year, Johnnie Walker: 1986, 1988, 1991
Golfer Of The Year: 1986, 1988, 1991
Personalidad del Año: 1988, 1989
World Player of the Year, Golf Digest: 1988
Gold Tee Award, Metropolitan Golf Writers Association: 1989
Key to the City of Augusta: 1999
European Player of the Century: 2000
International Player Century Award: 2001
Honorary Ambassador, Marca Spain: 2005
Atleta mundial más influyente en los cambios producidos en el deporte: 2008
Lifetime Achievement Award, BBC Sports Personality Award: 2009
Lifetime Achievement Award, Spanish Newspaper- AS: 2009
The Memorial Tournament Honoree: 2010
Academic Honors
Doctor Honoris Causa in Laws, University of St. Andrews: 2000

No golfer has epitomized the spirit of European golf like Severiano Ballesteros. The native of Spain did for European golf what Arnold Palmer did for golf in America.

Since turning professional in 1975, golf’s ultimate competitor has truly represented golf’s global appeal by spearheading Europe’s rise to Ryder Cup glory.

Ballesteros played on a rare combination of talent and heart. His intensity and style of play have constantly required high-risk recoveries and clutch putting that drew fans into his corner. His gifts of imagination, touch and determination on the course helped Ballesteros win more than 70 professional tournaments, including five Majors.

Two decades before Tiger Woods exploded onto the scene as a professional, Seve Ballesteros was golf’s teenage prodigy, dazzling the golf world with a runner-up finish at The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale as a 19-year-old.

“I knew at the time I won the Open in 1988 that I had reached some sort of peak, that it was a round of golf that I would think fondly about for the rest of my life.”

Ballesteros made emotion and a brilliant short game his best allies on the golf course. His magical touch derives from years of practice. As a boy, he developed his natural motion by hitting rocks on the beaches of Pedrena with a homemade 3-iron. In his prime, nobody was better at scrambling to manufacture low scores. Ballesteros won the Harry Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average on the European PGA Tour six times by erasing mistakes with his short game. Who can ever forget his famous birdie from the car-park in the 1979 Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes? Ballesteros became the first European to win the championship since Frenchman Arnaud Massy took the title at Royal Liverpool in 1907 and his victory confirmed the emergence of a wealth of European talent.

Ballesteros was at his erratic best in the final round of the 1988 Open again at Royal Lytham & St Annes, shooting a 65 that included an 11-hole stretch in which he made two pars, two bogeys, six birdies and an eagle. He worked magic out of the deep rough and performed wizardry around the green.

Ultimately, he closed out Nick Price with a brilliant chip from behind the 18th green that finished inches from the cup. Of that glorious round, which he counts as perhaps the finest putting performance of his career, Ballesteros remarked, “I knew at the time I won the Open in 1988 that I had reached some sort of peak, that it was a round of golf that I would think fondly about for the rest of my life.”

Fact

Seve Ballesteros teamed with Manuel Pinero in 1976 to win Spain its first World Cup.

While his individual record is exemplary, Ballesteros’ legacy will be for pushing golf onto a world stage by moving it onto the European continent and by making the Ryder Cup competitive. He was the heart and soul of the European team as an eight-time member and one-time captain. In 1987, the Ryder Cup gained prominence when the Europeans came to America and, for the first time, won on American soil.

Seve’s tenacity, fearlessness and fanatical desire to succeed helped make him one of the greatest match players of all time. When Valderrama Golf Club on Spain’s Costa del Sol was selected to host the 1997 Ryder Cup Matches – the first time for a mainland Europe venue – Ballesteros was the prime force. He was also the logical choice to captain the team. Even in this non-playing role, Ballesteros’ competitive fire was still the heart and soul of the victorious European team.

While his star has faded in recent years, Ballesteros will always be remembered as one of the most gifted golfers ever to play the game.

Lee Trevino may have put it best when he said of the Spaniard, “Every generation or so there emerges a golfer who is a little bit better than anybody else. I believe Ballesteros is one of them. On a golf course he’s got everything. I mean everything: touch, power, know-how, courage and charisma.”

Seve Ballesteros was originally inducted through the International category.