Honouring the great Seve Ballesteros

Tonight is the Masters dinner where all the past champions get a little pissed and revel in that rare air that they have achieved...

The past champ sets the menu and it is diverse.  This year Phil Mickelson has set a meaty menu, but the main theme is a tribute to the great Seve Ballesteros

So here is my tribute....

From his debut on the world golf s scene at Royal Birkdale, the site of this year's Open as a 19 yr  old in 1976 when he was 2nd he was without doubt the MAN in Europe and in the USA...

87 titles world wide, he was the  Arnie Palmer ( Tiger was still a cub) of Europe and make no mistake he never became a Yank..

From  1979 -1980  Seve won 3 Open Championships and 2 Masters although it should have been more and he made the Ryder Cup the event that keeps you on the edge of your seat every 2 years

Let's examine ..  his great years at Augusta 1979 -1990 .. He won twice '80 and 83 was 2nd twice  '85 and '87 , was 3rd in 82 and 4th in Jack's year 86, 5th in 89 and 7th in 90
Augusta was perfect for Seve who was and still is wild off the tee.,but he was the world's best with a long or short iron and made all tie big putts ala Tiger  and Jack when he had to

One year at Dalmahoy just outside Edinburgh I followed him and his caddy Manuel one of 4 Ballesteros brothers who are pros and he needed a birdie at 18 to tie. He messed up the hole, took 5 and I remember his brother, Manuel had to get him out of the port a loo he was crying in for the closing ceremonies

He was electric. driven, a star with a bad temper given to a great smile upon success. a dark haired Spanish conquistador not yet married, so an unsuspecting hheartthrob and the star of world golf.  Spain had no interest in golf. Football mad and bull fighting crazy, Seve put them on the map.

The game of golf and in particular the European tour owes it all to Seve... Kaymer, Westwood Donald etal  will pay their respects albeit via satellite phone to Spain to one of the Masters of this game, a man who thrilled me at St Andrews in 1984 and so many other times  the great Seve Ballesteros

Here is the latest from europeantour.com

A Spanish feast for the Masters champions dinner to honor twice-winner Seve Ballesteros, who is unable to travel to Augusta because of a brain tumor.

Mickelson, who used a short game reminiscent of the great Spanish master to win his third green jacket, asked for a gazpacho starter, paella, beef tenderloin with manchego cheese and tortilla, and Spanish apple pie with ice cream.

"All of the past champions are really thinking about Seve," said Mickelson, who has said Ballesteros's 1980 Masters victory inspired him as a nine-year-old.
"Honoring Seve is easy and no big deal, but I just want him to know that we all wish he was here and we are thinking about him so we are just having a little Spanish cuisine tonight."

It is a Masters tradition that the tournament's defending champion selects the dinner menu for the following year.

Mickelson recalled how thrilled he was to meet Ballesteros when, at age 17 and playing in his first PGA Tour event in San Diego, he played a practice round with the Spaniard.

"He was the classiest gentleman to me," said Mickelson, the favorite to win at Augusta this week. "From that day on and the rest of my career, he has been the nicest guy and supportive and been nothing but class to me, and I just always appreciated that."

Ballesteros turns 54 on Saturday.

"Here is a guy I looked up to as a kid, watched the way he played and loved the way he played and was drawn in by his charisma and he didn't let me down at all," the American said.
"He was every bit the gentleman I thought he was and more, and I just want to let him know that we are thinking of him."

Great praise from the guy who has won here 3 times and is the 7-1 favourite this week...

Bryan Angus