In Memory of Seve Ballesteros: 1957-2011

On Saturday, May 7th, the golfing world was saddened by the passing of Spanish golf legend Severiano (Seve) Ballesteros, who lost the battle against brain cancer.

Ballesteros was born in 1957 in the town of Pedrena, Spain. He burst onto the world golfing scene in the mid-1970s with a string of major victories that made him internationally known and a great sporting ambassador for Spain and continental Europe as a whole. In the period between 1976 and 1988 he won five major championships including three wins at the British Open and two at the US Masters. With a string of victories on the European Tour and as the premier member of the European Ryder Cup team in the 1970s and 1980s, Ballesteros put Spanish golf on the map and proved to the United States and Britain that European golfers could compete with the best in the world.

In the late 1980s Ballesteros reached the pinnacle of world golf – the title of world number one was finally his in 1988. Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s he was a regular fixture at the top of both the European and world golf rankings.

In the 1990s and 2000s Ballesteros turned to his talent for golf course design and ran a thriving business in this field. Having weathered several back complaints, he continued to compete in top-tier golf tournaments when his business schedule permitted. In 2000 he was instrumental in creating the Seve Trophy, a mini Ryder Cup of sorts played between Britain and continental Europe.

In October 2008, Ballesteros suffered a collapse at the Madrid-Barajas Airport. After being hospitalised it was discovered that the golfing legend had a malignant brain tumour. Several operations and rounds of chemotherapy gave Ballesteros a new lease on life. Last weekend, the Ballesteros family informed the media that his condition had deteriorated, and in the early hours of Saturday morning, Seve Ballesteros passed away. He will be missed and remembered not only by his three children, but by the world golf community to which he made a huge contribution.