Seve

Severiano "Seve" Ballesteros Sota died last Saturday, at the age of 54. He was one of the most dynamic golfers the world had ever seen, and his hell-bent style earned him appropriate comparisons to Arnold Palmer. The way he was able to ‘manufacture’ golf shots from horrible places drew even more apt comparisons, to Harry Houdini.

Over the last few days, hundreds of people in and around the game of golf have told us how great Seve was, and they are all correct. He made golf relevant in Europe again when he became the first golfer from continental Europe in 72 years to win the British Open in 1979. He was 22 years old. If anyone doubted his ability, or wrote it off as a fluke, when he won the Masters the following year at 23 he put any doubts to rest. At the time, he was the youngest golfer to have ever won the Masters, as he’d similarly been the prior year, when he was the youngest player to have won the British Open in the 20^th century.

Seve turned pro in 1973, at the age of 16.

I began to play a lot of golf about a year after I moved to Tucson, Arizona in 1974. I was single, 23 years old, had a job working at night, and weather that allowed me to indulge in a huge passion for playing the game 365 days of the year.

Ballesterose was carding a lot of scores in the 60’s back then, just as I was. The difference between us was that I would then have to play the back nine, while Seve would have been done for the day.

" A 3 iron from here...really?"

Seve was a special guy to the hackers on the golf course, and an inspiration for me, and many other younger guys starting to play the game. Seve was wild off the tee, like his American counterpart, Ben Crenshaw. One of Crenshaw’s nicknames was "Tarzan," because he seemed to spend so much time in the trees from all his errant shots. I don’t know what the Spanish translation for "Tarzan" is, but that was who Seve was too, and maybe more so?

The difference was that Crenshaw could save his par, or even make a miraculous birdie because he was perhaps the world’s best putter for many years. Seve could putt, but his special skill was in being a magician. He was able to extricate his golf ball from places no golfer had ever been to, and with golf shots no one else but a weekend hacker would dare to attempt, and then calmly make his par or birdie, and stalk to the next tee.

Seve was often described as being flamboyant and dashing, as if he were some matador (seriously) or pirate, because he seemingly approached the game with such a devil may care attitude.

Master's Champ at 23

By definition, he was flamboyant and he was always dashing, but he was never devil may care because he always had a plan, his plan was to win, and that’s (very) often what he did.

I have played a few thousand rounds of golf in my life, a vast majority of them during the time that Seve became a huge star. The consistently wayward nature of my game constantly evoked thoughts of "What would Seve do," as I found my golf ball in one nasty spot after another?

He was one of the greatest competitors I have ever seen in any game I have ever played or watched. He burst upon us as a brash kid in his early 20’s, his long, dark hair blowing in the breeze as he studied his next shot from a parking lot. Then, a smile on his face after he slashed a 3-iron 173 yards out of a forest, around a grandstand, and onto the putting surface, 6-feet from a birdie.

I smiled too.  Vaya con dios, Severiano.