Seve ballesteros wealthiest
Forever Seve: Four decades ago, a win at the Open Championship changed Seve Ballesteros&#;s life and birthed a legend
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The Open Championship featured weather that was frigid even by the miserable standards of the Lancashire coast. Heading out for the final round at Royal Lytham & St. Annes, leader Hale Irwin fortified himself with two sweaters and what he delicately called “intimate apparel.” But Irwin, who had won the U.S. Open just a few weeks earlier, was quickly blown away by the wicked winds off the Irish Sea, finishing the round with a That was three strokes better than the celebrated bad-weather grinder Tom Watson, who began the final round in eighth place but tumbled all the way to 25th. Jack Nicklaus made a run on that fateful Saturday—the Open wouldn’t finish on the Sabbath until —as did the young Ben Crenshaw, but this glamorous duo was no match for the hot-blooded young champion who set Lytham ablaze: Severiano Ballesteros. He was a mere 22 years old but already held the gallery in his grasp. They were drawn in by Seve’s smoldering good looks and effortless style, and wowed by his prodigious talent.
The Open was the win that began the cult of Seve, his sorcery that week having already passed into legend. Across 72 holes, he hit just nine fairways but ultimately would be the only player to break par in the brutal conditions. Lytham’s back nine played straight into the gale, and while all the other future Hall of Famers retreated, Seve came home at a full gallop, navigating the final seven holes in one-under par. “He was like a racehorse; he loved to have the bit in his mouth and to take off and run,” Irwin recently recalled. “Seve was a great frontrunner because he played without fear, or so it seemed.”
Americans had Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, and before that Ben Hogan and Bobby Jones and others. For us Europeans, Seve is all of those people rolled into one.
On the 16th hole, Ballesteros uncorked what Irwin calls “one of Golfer Seve Ballesteros' death was announced early Saturday, May 7, Although I only was able to watch Ballesteros on TV over the years and see him perform with excellence and grace under pressure in Ryder Cup matches, as well as major tournaments, I always admired him. In fact, when we were trying to decide on a title for our feature film From the Rough, I read an interview with Ballesteros in the New York Times last July In that article, when asked what he would like to have been different when he was a professional golfer, he gave an answer that was only half-kidding. He said that he would have preferred narrower and shorter fairways because, as he put it, everyone would have to play from the rough as often as he did. "He was able to create shots, invent shots, and play shots from anywhere. When he won at Royal Latham in , he played the 16th hole from a parking lot. I have watched him play 1-irons out of greenside bunkers, when just fooling around. He could get up and down out of a garbage can." Another pro Butch Harmon said: "The more trouble he got into, the more comfortable he felt in the situation." Being able to hit from the rough or other difficult lies and locations not only is important for getting out of trouble. It also enables a golfer to attempt to reach the green through shorter paths, rather than following the path prescribed by the fairways. This is particularly the case with holes laid out like doglegs. In the stories about his death, Tom Lehman, an American golfer, remembered a competi When I returned yesterday from my beach vacation, I learned through the press that Severiano Ballesteros had died the previous night, after suffering a serious worsening of their disease (a cancer of the brain) and against which he had been struggling since it was detected in March He was 54, still a very young man, and as this great golfer was a true icon in my country in the 80 and 90 (as now could be Rafa Nadal, for example), although I've never been a fan of golf sport, I grew up witnessing their deeds and accomplishments, and for all that, his death has impressed me more. He was very popular and much loved in my country and perhaps even more outside our borders. And although I am still under my little blogging break I could not help writing this little post today to his memory, joining to all the tributes that he will be have around the world. I just wanted to add a few lines more about their human side, which for me it is always the most interesting part in any people. By GEOFFREY WANSELL Seve Ballesteros running along Pedrena beach in Spain close to his home. The golfer had looks and charisma - but also dark rages One by one, he held the hands of his loved ones as they stood at his bedside. In a barely audible voice, he whispered to each of them: ‘I love you.’ And then he was gone. This weekend, the golf legend Seve Ballesteros finally succumbed to his prolonged battle with cancer aged just 54 at his home in Pedrena, northern Spain. ‘He knew he was dying and he did so with complete dignity,’ said his elder brother Baldomero, who was with him in the final moments. ‘He’s much more than a brother or a son or a father. He’s a glory.’ Ballesteros’s sheer force of personality exerted an extraordinary spell even on those with only a passing interest in the game to which he brought a wayward, impulsive genius. Yesterday, one professional golfer described him as the Elvis Presley of the golf course. With the sultry good looks of a Spanish matador, there was a touch of George Best about him, too. No, he didn’t drink as Best did, but he had the Irishman’s passion, flair and flamboyance — as well as an eye for the girls. But there was another side to him. He could be awkward, enigmatic, brusque. He was obsessed with money and infamously mean to his caddies. There was melancholy, too: ‘Bad luck stays with me more than good luck,’ he used to say. Indeed, it was this tantalising combination of electrifying charisma and self-destructive passion that made him a figure whose story transcends his sport. He was a man whose titanic will to win made him a legend — yet left him utterly unable to cope when his fortunes faded. ‘Seve was truly special, had more shots than anybody, but he didn’t really enjoy playing,’ said fellow star Lee Trevino, a lon
Although the comment was humorous, the real underlying message was that he was more comfortable than other golfers playing from the rough, and, for that matter, from any difficult location or lie. A contemporary of his, Ben Crenshaw, said that Ballesteros had the ability to design and execute on shots that most golfers could not imagine. In an article in the Sunday, May 8, , New York Times by Larry Dorman, Jack Nicklaus was quoted saying:
He was born in in Pedreña, a small town in Santander (northern Spain), where he grew up next to a golf course, the Royal Golf de Pedreña, a club opened by King Alfonso XIII in , where he worked since very small as a caddy of other prestigious golfers and where he began to feel the itch for this sport and where all who saw him began to realize very quickly that he had a natural gift for golf. At 17 he began his career and since then the career of one of the best record in professional golf history began to be shaped: 2 Masters, 3 British Open, 6 Ryder Cup, 5 Match Play, British Order of Merit, Gold Medal of the Parliament of Cantabria, Prince of Asturias Award for Sports
Always hearty and with a broad smile on his face (though showing always a strong will too), his personal life was not, however, as fortunate as was his professional life. In he married Carmen Botin, a daughter of Emilio Botin, President of Santander Bank, one of the wealthiest families in Spain, had 3 childre His will to win made him a legend - it also destroyed him: Seve Ballesteros had the girls, the gold and the glory. But golf's George Best was tormented to the end
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