I suspect there will be many threads come up about Seve over the next few days, but I felt I should write something, given my username. Two years and a half ago, I joined WGT and I was asked to choose a username. At the time, Seve Ballesteros was being operated on a brain tumor, and immediately I knew that my name must be some sort of tribute to the great legend of golf. Now, after his death, I feel prouder than ever of having the honour of being called "seve" by many people here.
A grim mood has gripped the country. Even the weather seems to have realised that something has gone wrong, and we´re having one of the darkest and most rainy days I have ever seen in Madrid in the month of May. To mentione that a guy like Jimenez ended yesterday´s round at the Spanish Open in tears just about says it all.
Because Seve changed golf, specially in Spain. In a country where everything has to be as passionate as possible and where I still live afraid that a war will begin the next time Real Madrid play Barcelona, a sport like golf seemed to have no place in our lives. That was, of course, until Seve Ballesteros arrived. He showed us that, to play and like golf, you don´t have to be an elegant Englishman (with all respect to elegant Englishmen lol) or have a beautiful swing. Seve was simply a boy who used to slip in to a golf cousre near his house at night because he didn´t have enough money to pay for a round. His swing could be described as wild at times, and his manner was far from the image we used to have a of golfers in Spain: the typical snob.
Seve also reminded everybody that golf esxists away from the United States. His role in the Ryder Cup is already known by anyone interested in golf, and needs little talking about.
But most of all it was his character that made him special. I thought about including a video or a picture of him, but then I realised that simply a few shots played by him could not show all that he was.
What I most loved about watching him play was how he used to get the ball out of the most horrendous places and put it on the green. It is something that I try to reproduce when I play golf, and I always remember him and try to imitate him when I find myself in a bad position, either in real golf or WGT, and I will think of him even more from now on. So, the next time you hit your drive straight into the middle of a bush, keep smiling, go up to it... and whack it three feet from the hole like Seve would have done.
Gracias Seve por todo lo que hiciste por nosotros. España y el mundo entero están contigo y siempre lo estarán. No merecías irte tan pronto. Hasta siempre, genio.