The first European Golfer to win The Masters tournament, one of the greatest and charismatic golfers of all time, born and raised in a farm family in Spain, his success story inspired many golfers around the world.
Severiano Ballesteros Sota was a Spanish professional golfer, born on 9April 1957 in the small village of Pedreña in northern Spain, coming from a family of gifted golfers, he started practicing golf with a three iron that his brother, a golf professional, gave him. He spent most of his time practicing on the beach as he couldn’t practice on the royal golf course in his village.
He turned professional at the age of 17, he catched the world’s attention at the age of 19 where he finished second on the prestigious British Open along with Jack Nicklaus. His first major win came at the British Open in 1979, the following year he became the first European golfer to with The Masters tournament which was considered an unthinkable achievement at the time, he went on to win five majors, The Open three times 1979, 1984, 1988 and The Masters two times 1980, 1983. He won over 90 tournaments in his international career.
Seve is considered the greatest European golfer of all time, his role in the re-emergence of the Ryder Cup is well documented, he won the Ryder Cup five times as a player and captain.
In 2008 he was diagnosed with malignant brain cancerous tumour, after battling with it for three years he died on 7 may 2011.
Tiger Woods described Ballesteros as “one of the most talented and exciting golfers to ever play the game”, Lee Westwood said “Seve made European golf what it is today”, In 2017, the European Tour Players’ Player of the Year award was renamed in his honor and in 2015 Ballesteros’ homeland airport was named to Seve Ballesteros – Santander Airport in his honor.
