This past Wednesday, 51-year-old Severiano Ballesteros was reported to be in stable condition following 12 hours of surgery at the LaPaz Hospital in Spain. Doctors extracted a sizeable portion of a brain tumor from Ballesteros. It would require several days before doctors would know whether the tumor was benign or cancerous. He will remain in the hospital”s intensive care unit for the next week.
A large brain tumor and the resulting 12 hours of surgery is shocking news regardless of who the patient is, but to the world of golf where the colorful and dashing Seve Ballesteors reigned supreme for close to three decades, it was a case in point regarding the fragility of life. For the last 30 years, Ballesteros has definitely been larger than life and is singularly responsible for the emergence of the European PGA Tour as a valid entity as well as the dramatic rejuvenation of the biennial Ryder Cup Matches through the inclusion of golfers from continental Europe.
Seve Ballesteros was born in 1957 in Pedrena, Spain. He was born into a golfing family, including an older brother, Manuel, a 12-year veteran of the European Tour; his uncle, Ramon Sota, a four-time winner on the European Tour and a top-10 finisher in the Masters; younger brothers Baldomera and Vicente, both professional golfers on the fringes of the European Tour; and a nephew, who is a pro.
Recognized far and wide as the best pure feel player of his generation, Seve took up the game as youngster, walking the beach near his home and bashing golf balls with his trusty 3-iron. It was quite some time before he had a complete golf set, and Ballesteros wore out the grooves on the 3-iron, all the while hitting high fades, low draws, and a bevy of trick shots.
In 1974, when he was just 16 years of age, a super confident Ballesteros turned professional and tried to qualify his way onto the European Tour. After two seasons of struggling, the ever-improving Ballesteros broke through with wins in the Dutch Open and the Lancome Trophy. More impressively though was his 54-hole lead in the 1976 British Open at Royal Birkdale. Johnny Miller ran down the 18-year-old Ballesteros on the final day, and Seve ended up tied for second with Jack Nicklaus. However, he made a great first impression upon the rest of the Open field. It gave him the much-needed confidence to believe that he belonged atop the world of golf alongside the likes of Nicklaus, Miller and Tom Watson.
Ballesteros won three European Tour events in 1977 and another four tourneys in 1978 as he became the dominant golfer on his home circuit. An erratic ball striker, Ballesteros knew how to score. He was a brilliant putter, had a world-class short game that oozed creativity, and was a tenacious competitor. He was generating great interest in his home tour, he often won in dramatic fashion, and he was fast becoming the European Tour”s version of Arnold Palmer.
The 1979 season was Ballesteros” breakthrough year. He won the early-season English Golf Classic and then elevated his game to the next level by capturing the British Open at Royal Lytham and St. Annes. Seve made up a five-shot final-round deficit to win by three shots over Ben Crenshaw and Jack Nicklaus. Perhaps the best remembered shot of that Open was Ballesteros” iron shot on the 16th hole from a parking lot, setting up a short birdie putt. He also was on the losing squad at the 1979 Ryder Cup matches at the Greenbrier in West Virginia, a member of the first class of continental Europeans to participate.
Ballesteros” career exploded at that point. Nicklaus was aging, Palmer had effectively retired to the Senior Tour, and he was the equal of the game”s No. 1, Tom Watson. Ballesteros won the 1980 Masters, running away from the field while holding a seven-shot lead after 54 holes. He won three times on the European Tour in 1980 and won another two times in 1981 while adding the Australian PGA Championship, the World Match Play, and the Japanese Tour”s pricey Dunlop Phoenix title to his golfing resume.
Ballesteros won major titles in consecutive years, taking home the green jacket at the 1983 Masters and making a dramatic birdie on the final hole at St. Andrews to edge out Tom Watson at the 1984 British Open. In 1988, he shot a final-round 65 at Lytham, the site of his first major win, and chipped his way to a third British Open championship, beating out third-round leader Nick Price.
Seve would also be remembered for his crash and burn on the 15th hole on final-round Sunday at Augusta National during the 1986 Masters. Seve snap-hooked a 4-iron into the pond, opening the door for Jack Nicklaus to win his 18th and final major.
Ballesteros continued to dominate in Europe with four wins in 1985, six wins in 1986 and five victories in 1988. The European Tour garnered popularity with the emergence of stars such as Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam, Sandy Lyle and Jose Maria Olazabal, all major title winners.
In 1997, two years removed from his final victory, the 1995 Peugot Spanish Open, Ballesteros captained the European Ryder Cup team to victory in his native Spain at Valderrama. In 1999, he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. He has suffered from back problems since the turn of the century, and just prior to the 2007 British Open, Ballesteros announced his retirement from competition. He has been focusing on his golf course architecture and design business.
The fate of Seve Ballesteros is now in the hands of some of Europe”s finest medical doctors. Unlike some of the next-to-impossible shots he used to pull off in his heyday, this might be a tough situation to extract himself from. Nonetheless, Seve Ballesteros has always been a larger-than-life figure who had an enormous impact upon the game in the modern era and who had a large hand in the growth of the game on an international level.
