Genius.
Seve Ballesteros 1957-2011
Callaway’s RAZR Edge ( 6)
Remembering Seve ( 7-9)
Shootout At Quail Hollow ( 16)
VOLUME 2 ISSUE 18 MAY 9, 2011
1
Gone Too Soon
There were longer, straighter and more
consistent drivers of the golf ball. There
were better putters and swings that were
more technically sound and repeatable.
There were players with better records and
players who made more money.
But Seve Ballesteros, who died way too
young over the weekend in Spain at the age
of 54, had something nobody else had –
something almost everybody was at a loss
to describe.
In English they call it “that certain
something.”
In French they call it “jai ne sais quoi.”
In Spanish they call it “duende.”
And in Latin, the original romance
language, there is the phrase “sine qua
non,” which means “without which there is
nothing.”
It was always all or nothing for Ball-
esteros. The ultimate compliment is that
without his genius there was nothing.
Former world No. 1 Nick Price once said
this: “When Seve was in full flight, the sky
was the limit. Most of us have about 100
ways to shoot 66. Seve had about 10,000
ways to shoot a 66.”
Five-time Open champion Tom Watson
once said this. “Seve was a magician.”
In his later years, Ballesteros was a
prisoner to the memory of his talent and
tormented by the loss of his sorcery on the
course. But no one else who had ever seen
his brilliance could forget it.
Wrote an Englishman of the Spaniard:
“He brought a gleam of sunshine to a game
that, until then, mainly involved umbrellas.”
May Severiano Ballesteros rest in peace.
Brian Hewitt
E-MAIL BRIAN
