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  • Seve Ballesteros

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.

 

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