|  Captains
Teams
Accommodation
Course
Sponsors
History
Media
Tour operators
Andalucia
Visitor's
book
Notebook
Biographies
| Seve
Ballesteros is one of the toughest competitors in the game of golf. He is the
one European player that loves taking on Americans and ever since he first took
part in the Ryder Cup in 1979 it was only a matter of time that he would one day
lead the team himself.
He is natural leader and inspirer to others with his
personality touching everyone he meets. He has enormous energy and his ambition
is matched only with his optimism.
Arnold Palmer when he first came up against
Seve said " I heard he was tough but didn't realise he was that tough!"
Seve will be the thinker and adviser of the team. His role will be to inspire
and his reaction when things are going badly are legendary. When all seems lost
Seve will battle to the end and has been known to hole out from 35 yards when
it was needed. He has the respect from all the players and he is certainly feared
by the Americans.
Curtis Strange remarked at Rochester after the amazing turnaround
on the final day when the European team won that "Seve should always be on
the European team as long as he can play at all. Europe plays well because of
Seve. He does everything possible to win. He is so intelligent about reading people.
He knows who he can intimidate and upset and who he can't, and how to use that
knowledge to win."
Colin Montgomerie has played Ryder Cup golf for 16
years and of Seve he thinks he is the best captain ever.
"He infects
others with his zest for the game. He is fantastic".
Severiano Ballesteros
is in fact just what the Ryder Cup team needs and for the European team to win
on his beloved Spanish soil would be the ultimate achievement for a player who
has already put so much into the game of golf.
A recently published volume
about Seve describes him as being "blessed with perhaps the most natural
talent for golf since Sam Snead ".
Few would disagree with that. It also
says that genius is not too strong a word to pin on someone who has stamped his
authority as well as his stature on the world of golf for over 20 years. He is
also the greatest golfing prodigy since Bobby Jones, the most charismatic golfer
since Arnold Palmer, the man who put Spain on the golfing map, and someone who
has done much to elevate European golf to the level it now occupies.
However,
the beginnings were a far cry from the lifestyle Seve enjoys today. Born into
farming stock, the youngest of four sons, the family income meant that Seve fashioned
his smooth swing with one club, an old 3-iron. When that was stolen he progressed
to a 5-iron and hacked away on the beach, or in the fields of Pedrena, in Northern
Spain.
While his uncle, Ramon Sota, had become Spanish Open Champion and built
a sound reputation in Europe, and his three brothers, Baldomeno, Manuel and Vicente,
had all become professionals, the young Seve worked as a caddie at the Royal Pedrena
Club, earning pocket money from visiting golfers, many of whom were British.
He turned professional on January 1st 1974. He was then 16 years 8 months and
21 days old, the youngest accredited tournament player in Spanish golfing history.
In terms of prize money, Seve has earned over £4 million in 23 seasons in
Europe, but his form has suffered in recent seasons. After the 1995 Ryder Cup
at Oak Hill, he took five months away from golf and although his 69th place in
the 1996 Volvo Rankings, his worst since his first season on tour, he is still
hopeful of qualifying for the 1997 team on merit. |  |
