Welcome to The Masters on HooperstarGolfer.blogspot.co.uk
A unique series of blogs taking you inside the history of Golf''s First Major and looking ahead to the 2013 Masters, as well as providing updates on the play and reports from each day of the first major of the golf season.
I hope you enjoy the series which will publish articles each day between April 1 and 15 EXCLUSIVELY on www.HooperstarGolfer.blogspot.co.uk
All feedback is appreciated.
Enjoy.
Matt.
If
Severiano Ballesteros was an artist then Augusta National Golf Club
was the perfect canvas for him to paint the most beautiful pictures.
With wins in 1980 and 1983, heartbreaking defeats in 1986 and 1987
and close calls in 1985, 1989 and 1990 Augusta proved to be the
setting in which the flair and creativity of the dashing Spaniard
could come to the fore more often than on any other course in the
United States. Not only was Seve an artist he was in fact a leader,
the pied piper of European Golf, ushering in an era of European
success not enjoyed in any Major since before the second World War –
11 wins in 20 Masters Tournaments between 1980 and 1999 by Bernhard
Langer, Sandy Lyle, Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam, Jose Maria Olazabal and
of course sensational Seve.
Each
generation in golf has a player which changes the way the game is
played and perceived, a player which increases the popularity of the
game in different parts of the world and society and a player which
challenges the norm and breaks records. Seve did all of this and
more. 50 European Tour wins, 5 Major Championships, 2 Masters
Tournaments and an influential role in reviving the Ryder Cup and
taking the European Tour to the next level, Ballesteros was the most
important golfer in modern European golf and was considered to be the
Arnold Palmer of Europe. Seve
was an intoxicating mix of charm, charisma and good looks allied to
athletic ability, the girls wanted to be with him and the guys wanted
to be him and he was unique in golf and usually those with a unique
quality shine at Augusta National – Seve was no different.
Following
his sensational breakthrough performance in the 1976 Open
Championship at Royal Birkdale where he held the 54-hole lead before
finishing in a tie for second place with Jack Nicklaus behind Johnny
Miller at the age of 19 Ballesteros went on to win 9 tournaments on
the European Tour and 1 on the PGA Tour before claiming a first Major
title. In the 1979 Open Championship at Royal Lytham and St Anne's
Seve came from 2 shots behind Hale Irwin in the final round to win
his first major, finishing as the only player under par and winning
by three strokes from Ben Crenshaw and Jack Nicklaus. The 22-year-old
was greeted in emotional scenes by his brother and father behind the
18th green and a new star in the game of golf had been
born, the world was at the feet of this incredibly talented Spaniard.
Ballesteros would not win again in 1979 and his next win anywhere was
at Augusta National.
Seve
had made three previous appearances at Augusta, improving each time
finishing 38th, 18th and 12th prior
to his fourth Masters invitation. The youngest Masters champion ever
was Jack Nicklaus when he won in 1963 at the age of 23, that was
until Seve slipped into the green jacket in 1980, the Open champion
celebrated his 23rd birthday on the day prior to the start
of the 1980 Masters Tournament and produced a dominant performance to
compare with Ben Hogan in 1953 and Jack Nicklaus in 1965.
The
1980 Masters Tournament was in many ways the equivalent of Rory
McIlroy in 2011, the only difference being that Seve did just manage
to hold on and get over the line to claim his second Major title at
the age of 23 – coincidentally the same age at which Rory McIlroy is
coming into the 2013 Masters, looking for his third Major and first
Masters. Ballesteros began his fourth Masters appearance with a
stunning six-under-par round of 66 which was enough to give the
prodigy a share of the lead with David Graham and Jeff Mitchell, he
would not look back and shot a 69 on Friday to open up a four stroke
lead with a two-round total of 135, nine-under-par and keep himself
on course for a maiden Masters victory. On Saturday Seve went one
better and posted a four-under-par 68 to take his three-round total
to 203, 13-under and an incredible 7 strokes clear and all of The
Masters records were under threat. The lowest four-round total of
17-under by Nicklaus and Floyd was within reach and the biggest
winning margin of 9 by Jack Nicklaus was also seemingly about to be
eclipsed by the flamboyant European super-hero, but winning at
Augusta National has never been easy, in any era.
Very
much like '65 when Nicklaus separated himself from the field on
Saturday the chasing pack had to be aggressive on Sunday in order to
close the gap on Ballesteros, and Hubert Green, Jack Newton and Gibby
Gilbert all produced great final rounds to move from 10, 9 and 8
shots behind Seve respectively into a position whereby the Spaniard
had a nervous final few holes as he looked to close out the win.
Despite a decidedly shaky Amen Corner which
saw his lead shrink from 7 to 3 Ballesteros clinched victory with the
help of a 2-putt birdie on the dramatic par five 15th
hole and hung on for a four-shot win, posting a round of level par 72
for a 72-hole total of 275 and 13-under-par. He made the most birdies
ever by a winner, 23 of them, helping him to become the youngest ever
Masters champion and seemingly crowned him as the new king of golf,
just as the 1963 Masters had done for Jack Nicklaus.
Sports
Illustrated certainly thought so in their Masters edition
“Ballesteros
seems destined to take many more majors. Consider what his game
combines: the length of a younger Jack Nicklaus, the boldness of a
1960s Arnold
Palmer and
the putting touch of a Ben Crenshaw. There
can be no question that Ballesteros has profited from playing golf in
places besides Florida and California. In winning such titles as the
Dutch, French, Swiss, Japanese, German, Kenya and Scandinavian opens,
and proving he can take the big ones against the best the U.S. has to
offer, he is a strong argument for the case that international travel
not only broadens the mind but improves the grip and the swing.” Seve
received the jacket from the first golfer since the first Masters to
win the title on his debut appearance, Fuzzy Zoeller was 27 and had
won just once prior to his Masters win, it was very much an upset at
that time even though he would go on to win a US Open 5 years later,
Seve winning however was no surprise but what was surprising was that
he would only win once more at Augusta. It was not for the lack of
trying though. Somewhat
shockingly Seve would miss the cut in 1981 as defending champion but
in the very next year following 5 wins on the European Tour and 1 in
Japan Ballesteros would bounce back into contention at Golf's First
Major.
Tough
conditions over the first couple of days in 1982 led to high scoring
at Augusta National but Seve kept himself within touching distance of
the lead with two rounds of 73 to sit two-over-par going into the
weekend, and with more spring like conditions on Saturday the scoring
came down and with it the chances of the 1980 champion improved with
a four-under-par 68 to move to two-under-par for the tournament and
place him three shots behind Craig Stadler in a tie for second place.
But despite Stadler playing the final six holes in four-over-par Seve
could not find that vital birdie to tie and force himself into the
play-off, Stadler would defeat Dan Pohl on the first extra hole to
claim his first and only Major title. 3 more worldwide wins in the
next 12 months and Seve came into the 1983 Masters as one of the
leading protagonists once again, and this time he would make no
mistake in claiming a third Major title and second green jacket.
The
first round of the 1983 Masters was highlighted by the play of Arnold
Palmer, the four-time Masters champion was 53 years of age but
produced a round of 68 to sit one off the lead held by Jack Renner,
Raymond Floyd and Gil Morgan who each posted rounds of 67 on a
beautiful day for scoring in Georgia. Seve matched Palmer with a 68
and was well placed on a leaderboard which the leading 8 players were
separated by just one stroke, Seve would however be the only man who
moved forward at the 1983 Masters. A second round 70 would put him
into second place but on the third day the conditions would be tough
and the master at minimizing the damage did so again with a third
round of 73 in contrast to the round of 76 shot by Gil Morgan and 78
by Jack Renner, Seve remained in second place to Raymond Floyd by one
stroke but this time in the final round he would take advantage of
mistakes by the contenders on the second nine.
Ballesteros
bounced out of the traps with a birdie three at the first hole to tie
Floyd for the lead and then shook the field with an eagle three at
the second hole to hit the front, he never looked back. He extended
his lead to six shots before bogeys at the 10th and 12th
reduced his advantage to four with six to play. Two Masters wins by
four strokes making the Spaniard one of the most dominant golfers in
Masters history in terms of margins of victory, his place among the
legends of the game was now secure with a third major title and
second emphatic win at Augusta National. Sensationally
again Seve would miss the cut when defending his title in 1984 but
another major victory would be just around the corner. Despite
The Masters being the tournament in which Seve showed the most
consistency, 8 top 10 finishes in 11 starts between 1980 and 1990, it
was at The Open Championship where the Matador was most loved, he was
cherished by and supported by the British golf fan and in 1984 on the
course Augusta was modelled after Ballesteros provided the iconic
moment which has come to symbolize Seve.
After a thrilling battle
with Bernhard Langer and Tom Watson on the final day at the Old
Course in St Andrews Seve came to the famous 18th knowing
a birdie would be critical to giving him any chance of success at the
Home of Golf. Having played his approach to around 15 feet to the
right of the hole he faced a devilish breaking putt with the eyes of
the golfing world on him and a record crowd on hand he rolled the
putt to the edge of the hole and the ball hung there for a brief
moment, before dropping and Ballesteros energetically and
enthusiastically punched the air in delight. He hugged his caddie
Dave Musgrove and left the green punching the air with a beaming
smile on his face, he had won a second Open Championship and a fourth
major title, he was without question the greatest golfer in the
world. The
1985 Masters would be another close call for Seve, finishing in
second place two strokes behind his fellow European Bernhard Langer,
who would make it three European winners of The Masters in the 1980's
proving that Seve wasn't the lone ranger when it comes to European
golfers at Augusta, the era of the Europeans was in full swing and
Ballesteros should have added two more wins in 1986 and 1987.
The
1986 Masters has universally become known as the greatest Masters
ever, but for Seve Ballesteros it is most certainly the major he
would have felt the worst about losing, because he had it in the palm
of his hands on the second nine on Sunday following a dramatic eagle
at the 13th giving himself a two stroke lead over Tom Kite
and four stroke advantage over Greg Norman and Jack Nicklaus. However
with a charging Jack Nicklaus making birdie at 13, eagle at 15 and
birdies at 16 and 17 the bogeys Seve made at 15 and 17 meant the 1980
and 1983 champion suffered an agonizing defeat when he had one arm in
the sleeve of a third green jacket. 12 months later he got even
closer to a third Masters title and enjoyed another battle with one
of his great rivals in the 1980's – Greg Norman. If the 1986
Masters was the most exciting and greatest in some people's opinions
then the 1987 had without question one of the most dramatic finishes
in golf history, and it was another bitterly disappointing defeat for
both Seve and Norman, following the incredible 140-feet chip in from
Georgia native Larry Mize on the second play-off hole. Seve, Mize and
Norman tied after 72-holes at 3-under-par and went into extra holes,
Seve made a bogey on the tenth hole and Norman and Mize made par
fours to progress to the 11th hole where Mize's Miracle
ended the tournament in extraordinary fashion.
Seve
would win one more major at the place he won his first 9 years
earlier with a round which Nick Faldo calls the greatest round he has
ever seen, a 65 on Monday in the final round after rain washed Sunday
out. Ballesteros defeated Nick Price and Faldo in one of his most
legendary individual performances, but the way in which he swung the
club was beginning to take its toll and major success would elude him
for the rest of his career. The five-time Major champion would win a
further 20 tournaments around the world following his success at
Royal Lytham and St Anne's and there would still be flashes of
brilliance but the dominant and daunting Seve of the mid-80's was
less prevalent. His final win came in the 1995 Spanish Open.
One
of the defining elements of Seve's career was match play and his role
in reviving the Ryder Cup cannot be underestimated, and because of
the respect the European Tour had for this role played by Ballesteros
they selected Spain as the host country for the 1997 Ryder Cup, and
the magnificent Valderrama, known as the Augusta of Europe, would
stage the tournament. Seve
was selected as the overwhelming choice to be Europe's captain and he
performed the job in his own unique style, leading Europe to an
emotional victory in the rain in Spain. It was to be the crowning
glory of Severiano Sota Ballesteros' career.
The
death of Ballesteros left his family and close friends bereft and had
a profound impact upon all of the golfers who had competed with,
against and played alongside Seve during 15 years at the very top of
golf. It is somewhat apt that the winner of the first Masters
Tournament following his death was Bubba Watson. The flair with which
Watson plays the game and the outrageous skill shown by his title
clinching shot in the play-off against Louis Oosthuizen more than had
the hallmark of Seve on it, it was as if he had played it from heaven
himself. Then in September his spirit seemed to will Europe to an
incredible comeback at Medinah, there are golfers, there are great
golfers, there are legendary golfers and then there are iconic
golfers. Golfers who transcend their sport and leave a legacy that
will be felt in the sport for decades later, Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan,
Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, Tiger and
Seve are these men who have each contributed to the game at a level
far greater than any other golfers. All of them loved and love
Augusta and all of them played at their peak at Augusta, all of them
are artists, Augusta is the canvas and Seve is Monet, Picasso and Da
Vinci.
Tomorrow on
The Masters on HooperstarGolfer.blogspot.co.uk
– Sandy Lyle, the 1988 Masters and the era of the British Masters
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