The Open Championship 2001

Seve Ballesteros returned to the scene of two of his Open Championship triumphs and admitted that he was at "the lowest point of my career".

The 44-year-old Spaniard, winner of three Opens and two Masters' Green
Jackets, cast his eye over Royal Lytham & St Annes - where he lifted the Old
Claret Jug in 1979 and 1988 - and spoke darkly about the lack of confidence which has reduced him to an also ran on the European Tour over the past five seasons.

"The only thing I have ever been telling myself is I better just keep practising and working harder to try to regain my game," said the former European Ryder Cup captain who missed yet another halfway cut in the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond as recently as last Friday.

"Just to continue the way I have been playing this year is really tough. You don't know how tough it is to come out here and just keep missing the cut.
Missing the cut is not a big factor for me, it is just the way I have been
playing.

" I find it very difficult to keep myself motivated when I play on the golf
course when things are going badly. The confidence goes down and then it becomes very difficult to focus and concentrate."

But Ballesteros clearly hoped that a return to "the best course that we play the Open" would trigger a revival in form, not so much for himself as for his many fans, most notably his 10-year-old son Javier. "He keeps telling me, 'I want to see you win because I have not seen you win, never seen you win before.' Perhaps if that doesn't happen, I will show him some videos from my victories and maybe he will believe me."

Ballesteros also singled out his young successor as the star of Spanish golf, Sergio Garcia, as one player to watch this week. "He's playing really well in America this year and has won two tournaments. It's a pity he's not playing more in Europe. It would be good for the European Tour, but to become a better player and develop his game maybe America is a better place."
Ballesteros also mentioned the young Australian duo Adam Scott and Aaron Baddeley as two other exciting talents who could contend on a course "that
demands all the shots that you can have in the bag".
But he hasn't entirely written off his own chances. "When I won in 1988, I
was playing really bad and played only six holes on the Wednesday. Then I birdied the first three holes on Thursday and I felt I was a different player. Sometimes you nearly believe you are God out there and then all of a sudden you feel useless.

""This is the game of humbled people and if you are not humble the game will show you how to be humble sooner or later."

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