LAS VEGAS, (Reuters) – Seve Ballesteros, one of golf’s most charismatic players who was renowned for his fist-pumping energy and magical shot-making, died yesterday at the age of 54 after a long battle with brain cancer.
The Spaniard with the matinee idol looks, who won five major titles in swashbuckling style and inspired a generation of players worldwide, died peacefully at his home in Pedrena, northern Spain, his family said in a statement.
His funeral will be held on Wednesday.
Tributes came pouring in, with Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods talking about Ballesteros’s unique talent and influence and Nick Faldo describing him as golf’s “greatest show on earth”.
“Today golf lost a great champion and a great friend,” 18-times major champion Nicklaus said in a statement. “We also lost a great entertainer and ambassador for our sport.
“It was his creativity, his imagination and his desire to compete that made him so popular. Seve’s enthusiasm was just unmatched by anybody I think that ever played the game.”
A winner of three British Opens and two Masters titles, Ballesteros gave golf a much-needed lift in the mid-to-late 1970s. Along with Briton Tony Jacklin, he was also chiefly responsible for reviving Europe’s fortunes in the Ryder Cup team competition.
A man of humble background, he became a father figure for Spanish golf and replaced American Arnold Palmer as the game’s most flamboyant and charismatic figure.
Ballesteros won 87 titles worldwide, 50 of them on the European Tour, and captained Europe to Ryder Cup victory at Valderrama in Spain in 1997.
He claimed his first major in the 1979 British Open at Royal Lytham, earning the tag of ‘car park champion’ after conjuring remarkable rescue shots from all parts of the course.
WALL SHOT
Billy Foster, one of his former caddies, told Reuters he remembered trying to dissuade Ballesteros from going for a seemingly impossible shot from behind an eight-foot (2.5-metre) wall at a tournament in Switzerland.
“He waved me away and proceeded to hit a wedge with half a backswing over the wall, through some trees where there was a tiny gap the size of a dinner plate, over a swimming pool, over 60-foot trees, and got it five yards short of the green and then chipped in,” said Briton Foster.
