Seve's absence casts shadow over St Andrews
Source: Agencies |
July 16, 2010, Friday
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A SAND wedge and a pair of worn white golf shoes stuck inside a glass museum case are all anyone will see of Seve Ballesteros this week at the British Open.
Ballesteros hoped to be on hand at the Old Course for a four-hole exhibition of past champions commemorating the 150th anniversary of the game's oldest major. But his recovery from a brain tumor has kept Europe's most influential golfer ever close by the fishing village where he first learned to play the game, along Spain's wind-swept northern coast.
Howling gusts and sideways rain forced cancellation of Wednesday's exhibition, but did little to dim the memories of the man or his momentous win here in 1984. Ballesteros sent a video that was played at a dinner inside the Royal and Ancient clubhouse at St Andrew for his former fellow champions.
"He said, "I wish I could be there. I wish I had the energy to be there," and he wished us all the best of luck," said five-time Open champion Tom Watson, who finished two shots behind Ballesteros, tied for second, in 1984. "It was sad. It was sad to see him. He's obviously struggling at this point, and it's sad to see that."
Ballesteros' most recent interview took place at his home with Golf Digest's Jaime Diaz, who imagined the Spaniard's opening tee shot on the game's most prestigious stage as "golf's version of Muhammad Ali lighting the Olympic torch at the 1996 Summer Games."
Like Ali, Ballesteros' flamboyance and his fierce independence rubbed some of the people in authority the wrong way. And like Arnold Palmer, he was a crowd favorite nearly everywhere he went, though few galleries anywhere loved him more than the Scots. When his 15-foot birdie putt at the final hole dropped languidly into cup in that 1984 win, a roar erupted that shivered up and down the coast.
Despite winning two Masters to go with his three Opens and almost single-handedly igniting the game on the continent, Ballesteros never received his due back in the US. Yet it wasn't just the language barrier, or even the way his charisma and all those remarkable recovery shots, including one from a parking lot, got lost in translation. Much of what put off Americans, no doubt, was simply Ballesteros' competitiveness and over-the-top delight at punishing the US squad in several Ryder Cups.
"That only made him more of a hero to us," countryman Miguel Angel Jimenez said. "There were so few models for many of us when we began playing, but it was not just his swing. It was how he walked, like a leader all the time, how he never lost his fighting spirit, no matter how much trouble he was in. It was so many things ... so many."
Ballesteros hoped to be on hand at the Old Course for a four-hole exhibition of past champions commemorating the 150th anniversary of the game's oldest major. But his recovery from a brain tumor has kept Europe's most influential golfer ever close by the fishing village where he first learned to play the game, along Spain's wind-swept northern coast.
Howling gusts and sideways rain forced cancellation of Wednesday's exhibition, but did little to dim the memories of the man or his momentous win here in 1984. Ballesteros sent a video that was played at a dinner inside the Royal and Ancient clubhouse at St Andrew for his former fellow champions.
"He said, "I wish I could be there. I wish I had the energy to be there," and he wished us all the best of luck," said five-time Open champion Tom Watson, who finished two shots behind Ballesteros, tied for second, in 1984. "It was sad. It was sad to see him. He's obviously struggling at this point, and it's sad to see that."
Ballesteros' most recent interview took place at his home with Golf Digest's Jaime Diaz, who imagined the Spaniard's opening tee shot on the game's most prestigious stage as "golf's version of Muhammad Ali lighting the Olympic torch at the 1996 Summer Games."
Like Ali, Ballesteros' flamboyance and his fierce independence rubbed some of the people in authority the wrong way. And like Arnold Palmer, he was a crowd favorite nearly everywhere he went, though few galleries anywhere loved him more than the Scots. When his 15-foot birdie putt at the final hole dropped languidly into cup in that 1984 win, a roar erupted that shivered up and down the coast.
Despite winning two Masters to go with his three Opens and almost single-handedly igniting the game on the continent, Ballesteros never received his due back in the US. Yet it wasn't just the language barrier, or even the way his charisma and all those remarkable recovery shots, including one from a parking lot, got lost in translation. Much of what put off Americans, no doubt, was simply Ballesteros' competitiveness and over-the-top delight at punishing the US squad in several Ryder Cups.
"That only made him more of a hero to us," countryman Miguel Angel Jimenez said. "There were so few models for many of us when we began playing, but it was not just his swing. It was how he walked, like a leader all the time, how he never lost his fighting spirit, no matter how much trouble he was in. It was so many things ... so many."
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