Severiano Ballesteros
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Career outline
Ballesteros learned the game while playing on the beaches near his home, mainly using a 3-iron given to him by one of his older brothers. His uncle Ramón Sota was Spanish professional champion four times and finished 6th in the Masters in 1965. Severiano's older brother Manuel finished in the top 100 on the European Tour order of merit every year from 1972 to 1983, and later became Severiano's manager. Brothers Vicente and Baldomero are also professional golfers, but made little impact in tournament golf. Severiano's nephew Raul has played the European Tour since the turn of the Millennium, but has had little success.
Ballesteros turned professional in March 1974 at the age of 16. In 1976, he burst onto the international scene with a second-place finish in The Open Championship; he went on to win the European Tour Order of Merit (money title) that year, and repeated his Order of Merit win the following two years. He would go on to win the Order of Merit six times, a record at that time (since surpassed by Colin Montgomerie).
Ballesteros went on to win five major championships:
- The Masters: 1980, 1983
- His 1980 win was the first at Augusta by a European player.
- The Open Championship: 1979, 1984, 1988
He was also a great at match play; he won the World Match Play Championship five times, and was a mainstay of the European Ryder Cup team for much of the 1980s and 1990s. He scored 20 points out of 37 matches against the United States; his partnership with fellow Spaniard José María Olazábal was one of the most successful in the history of the competition, with 11 wins and two halved matches out of 15 pairs matches. While Ballesteros was a member of European sides that won the Ryder Cup in 1985, retained the Cup in 1987 and 1989, and regained the Cup in 1995, the pinnacle of his career in the competition came in 1997, when he captained the winning European side at Valderrama Golf Club in Sotogrande, Spain. This was the first Ryder Cup ever held in continental Europe.
In 2000, he created The Seve Trophy, a team competition similar to the Ryder Cup pitting a team from Great Britain and Ireland against one from continental Europe.
Ballesteros continues to play on the European Tour, and has a thriving golf course design business. He is married with three children.
European Tour wins
- 1976 Dutch Open, Lancome Trophy
- 1977 Open de France, Uniroyal International Championship, Swiss Open
- 1978 Martini International, Braun German Open, Scandinavian Enterprise Open, Swiss Open
- 1979 The Open Championship, Lada English Golf Classic
- 1980 Madrid Open, Martini International, Dutch Open
- 1981 Scandinavian Enterprise Open, Benson and Hedges Spanish Open
- 1982 Cespa Madrid Open, Paco Rabanne Open de France
- 1983 Sun Alliance PGA Championship, Carroll's Irish Open, Lancome Trophy
- 1984 The Open Championship
- 1985 Carroll's Irish Open Peugeot Open de France, Sanyo Open, Benson and Hedges Spanish Open
- 1986 Dunhill British Masters, Carroll's Irish Open, Johnnie Walker Monte Carlo Open, Peugeot Open de France, KLM Dutch Open, Lancome Trophy
- 1987 Suze Open
- 1988 Mallorca Open de Balleares, The Open Championship, Scandinavian Enterprise Open, German Open, Lancome Trophy
- 1989 Cepsa Madrid Open, Epson Grand Prix of Europe Matchplay Championship, Ebel European Masters Swiss Open
- 1990 Open Renault de Baleares
- 1991 Dunhill British Masters, Volvo PGA Championship
- 1992 Dubai Desert Classic, Turespana Open de Baleares
- 1994 Benson and Hedges International Open, Mercedes German Masters
- 1995 Peugeot Spanish Open
Major championships are shown in bold.
Other wins
- 1974 Spanish National Championship for under 25s, Open de Vizcaya
- 1975 Spanish National Championship for under 25s
- 1976 Memorial Donald Swaelens, Cataluña Championship, Tenerife Championship, World Cup of Golf (with Manuel Pinero)
- 1977 Japanese Open, Dunlop Phoenix (Japan), Otago Classic (New Zealand), Braun International Golf (Germany - not a European Tour event), World Cup of Golf (with Antonio Garrido)
- 1978 Greater Greensboro Open (PGA Tour), Japanese Open, Kenya Open, Spanish National Championship for under 25s
- 1979 Open el Prat
- 1980 The Masters (PGA Tour)
- 1981 Australian PGA Championship, Suntory World Match Play Championship (England - not then a European Tour event), Dunlop Phoenix (Japan)
- 1982 Masters de San Remo (Italy), Suntory World Match Play Championship (England - not then a European Tour event)
- 1983 The Masters (PGA Tour), Westchester Classic (PGA Tour), Million Dollar Challenge (South Africa)
- 1984 Suntory World Match Play Championship (England - not then a European Tour event), Million Dollar Challenge (South Africa)
- 1985 Spanish Championship for Professionals, Suntory World Match Play Championship (England - not then a European Tour event), USF & G Classic (USA), Campeonato de España-Codorniu
- 1987 APG Larios, Campeonato de España Para Professionales
- 1988 Westchester Classic (USA), Visa Taiheiyo Masters (Japan), APG Larios
- 1991 Chunichi Crowns Open (Japan), Toyota World Match Play Championship (England - not then a European Tour event)
- 1992 Copa Quinto Lentenario per Equipos, Fifth Centenary Cup (team)
- 1995 Tournoi Perrier (team)
Major championships are shown in bold. The three majors played in the United States did not count as European Tour events before 1987.
Team appearances
- Ryder Cup: 1979, 1983, 1985 (winners), 1987 (winners), 1989 (tied, cup retained), 1991, 1993, 1995 (winners), 1997 (winners - non-playing captain)
- Alfred Dunhill Cup: 1985, 1986, 1988
- World Cup of Golf: 1975, 1976 (winner with Manuel Pinero), 1977 (winner with Antonio Garrido), 1991
- Hennessy Cognac Cup: 1976, 1978, 1980
- Double Diamond: 1975, 1976, 1977
- The Seve Trophy: 2000 (non-playing captain - winners), 2002 (non-playing captain), 2003 (non-playing captain)
See also
External links
- Official home page (http://www.seveballesteros.com)
- Profile on the European Tour's official site (http://www.europeantour.com/players/bio.sps?iPlayerNo=8&sOption=profile)
- Seve Ballesteros at About.com (http://golf.about.com/od/golfersmen/p/seveballesteros.htm)
- Seve Ballesteros at Golf Stars Online (http://www.golfstarsonline.com/B/Seve_Ballesteros/) Directory of interviews, websites and feature articles with or about himde:Severiano Ballesteros
fr:Severiano Ballesteros ja:セベ・バレステロス no:Severiano Ballesteros sv:Severiano Ballesteros