MADRID — Seve Ballesteros was a genius with a golf club in his hands, an inspiration to everyone who saw him create shots that didn’t seem possible. The Spaniard’s passion and pride revived European golf and made the Ryder Cup one of the game’s most compelling events.
His career was defined not only by what he won, but how he won.
“He was the greatest show on earth,” Nick Faldo said.
Ballesteros, a five-time major champion whose incomparable imagination and fiery personality made him one of the most significant figures in modern golf, died Saturday of complications from a cancerous brain tumor. He was 54.
“Seve was one of the most talented and exciting golfers to ever play the game,” Tiger Woods said on Twitter. “His creativity and inventiveness on the golf course may never be surpassed. His death came much too soon.”
A statement on Ballesteros’ website early Saturday said he died peacefully at 2:10 a.m. local time, surrounded by his family at his home in Pedrena. It was in this small Spanish town where Ballesteros first wrapped his hands around a crude 3-iron and began inventing shots that he would display on some of golf’s grandest stages.
He won the Masters at 23, leading by 10 shots at one point in the final round. He was a three-time winner of the British Open, no moment greater than his 1984 victory at St. Andrews.
He was as inspirational in Europe as Arnold Palmer was in America, a handsome figure who feared no shot and often played from where no golfer had ever been.
“Today, golf lost a great champion and a great friend. We also lost a great entertainer and ambassador for our sport,” Jack Nicklaus said. “No matter the golf that particular day, you always knew you were going to be entertained. Seve’s enthusiasm was just unmatched by anybody I think that ever played the game.”
In a long list of spectacular shots, perhaps the most memorable came from a parking lot next to the 16th fairway at Royal Lytham & St. Annes in the 1979 British Open. Leading by two in the final round, he drove his ball into the lot, had a car removed to get his free drop, then fired his second shot to 15 feet and made birdie on his way to his first major.
“He was a man who got into trouble. Only for Seve, there was no such thing as trouble,” Gary Player once said.
Headlines such as “The Inventor of Spanish Golf” and “Life of a Legend” were splashed across Spanish media as athletes and other notable figures from around the world paid tribute Saturday.
“This is such a very sad day for all who love golf,” European Tour chief executive George O’Grady said on the tour website. “Seve’s unique legacy must be the inspiration he has given to so many to watch, support and play golf, and finally to fight a cruel illness with equal flair, passion and fierce determination.”
Spanish golf federation president Gonzaga Escauriaza called Ballesteros an icon of Spanish golf, a “unique, unrepeatable person.”
Lee Westwood, the No. 1 player in the world, said on Twitter: “Seve made European golf what it is today.” His last challenge came from an unbeatable foe: cancer.
Ballesteros fainted at a Madrid airport while waiting to board a flight to Germany on Oct. 6, 2008, and was subsequently diagnosed with the brain tumor.
