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  • Wins
    3
  • Turned Pro
    1974
  • Previous Opens
    28
  • CHAMPION GOLFER OF THE YEAR
    1979
    1984
    1988

Seve Ballesteros

Seve
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By winning The Open in 1979, Seve Ballesteros ushered in a new era and made a new generation of fans fall in love with the game.
Seve
  • Topped golf's world rankings for 61 weeks between 1986 and 1989

    Rankings

  • Learned golf aged 7 using a cut down three-iron on the beach

    Did you know?

  • 91

    Professional wins

Seve Ballesteros Claret Jug 1979

Seve captures the Claret Jug

Seve burst on to the golf scene in the late 1970s and captured his first major at Royal Lytham & St Annes in 1979. 

Seve
St Andrews, 1984

seve at the open in pictures

Seve Ballesteros 1988

Seve loves Royal Lytham & St Annes

The Spaniard captured his third Claret Jug, once again at the Lancashire course. He won by two strokes from Nick Price.

By winning The Open in 1979, Seve Ballesteros ushered in a new era and made a new generation of fans fall in love with the game.

Exciting, flamboyant, wild, unpredictable – he was all these things, his passion infectious. He was runner-up as a 19-year-old in 1976 but it was three years later at Royal Lytham & St Annes, as the Ryder Cup opened its doors to continental Europeans, that Ballesteros became the first player from mainland Europe to win The Open since Arnaud Massy in 1907.

At 22, he was the youngest Champion of the 20th century. Attacking the course and letting his magical short game get him out of trouble, Ballesteros drove into an overflow car park on the 16th but got a free drop and still made his birdie.

Five years later he birdied the 18th at St Andrews and celebrated joyously, in the process denying Tom Watson a sixth Open. And back at Lytham in 1988 he produced a wondrous closing round of 65 to beat Nick Price and Nick Faldo, a win sealed with a delicious chip at the final green.

There were also two Masters victories, in 1980 and 1983, and there might have been more at Augusta, as he led the way for Europe’s Big Five – Seve, Faldo, Langer, Lyle and Woosnam – as well as his compatriot Jose Maria Olazabal.

The Spanish pair formed an almost unbeatable Ryder Cup partnership and it was Seve with Tony Jacklin as captain who led Europe’s resurgence in the contest in the 1980s. He was a typically frenzied winning captain at Valderrama in 1997.

Faldo said: “Seve was golf’s Cirque du Soleil. The passion, artistry, skill, drama, that was Seve.” Injuries, loss of form and controversy were never far away later in his career. In 2008 he was diagnosed with a brain tumour and died in 2011, aged just 54.

Venue
Finish
R1
R2
R3
R4
Total
Par
Royal Liverpool 2006
M/C
74
77
-
-
-
M/C
Royal Lytham & St Annes 2001
M/C
78
71
-
-
-
M/C
St Andrews 2000
M/C
78
69
-
-
-
M/C
Carnoustie 1999
M/C
80
86
-
-
-
M/C
Royal Birkdale 1998
M/C
73
75
-
-
-
M/C
Royal Troon 1997
M/C
77
71
-
-
-
M/C
Royal Lytham & St Annes 1996
M/C
74
78
-
-
-
M/C
St Andrews 1995
40
75
69
76
71
291
-
Turnberry 1994
38
70
70
71
69
280
-
Royal St George's 1993
27
68
73
69
71
281
-
Muirfield 1992
M/C
70
75
-
-
-
M/C
Royal Birkdale 1991
9
66
73
69
71
279
-
St Andrews 1990
M/C
71
74
-
-
-
M/C
Royal Troon 1989
77
72
73
76
78
299
-
Royal Lytham & St Annes 1988
1
67
71
70
65
273
-
Muirfield 1987
50
73
70
77
75
295
-
Turnberry 1986
6
76
75
73
64
288
-
Royal St George's 1985
39
75
74
70
73
292
-
St Andrews 1984
1
69
68
70
69
276
-
Royal Birkdale 1983
6
71
71
69
68
279
-
Royal Troon 1982
13
71
75
73
71
290
-
Royal St George's 1981
39
75
72
74
72
293
-
Muirfield 1980
19
72
68
72
74
286
-
Royal Lytham & St Annes 1979
1
73
65
75
70
283
-
St Andrews 1978
17
69
70
76
73
288
-
Turnberry 1977
15
69
71
73
74
287
-
Royal Birkdale 1976
2
69
69
73
74
285
-
Carnoustie 1975
M/C
79
80
-
-
-
M/C

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