The show is over for Ballesteros, golf's magical matador

A file photo taken on November 9, 2003 shows Severiano Ballesteros hitting out from a bunker on the 10th hole during the fourth day of the Seve Trophy 2003 at the El Saler golf club in Valencia. AFP

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland: Seve Ballesteros has finally listened to his head and his heart. His decision to retire announced on Monday has been a long time coming but long overdue.

The Spanish golfing matador, who had thrilled several generations with his swashbuckling style, will no longer be playing those outrageous shots of genius that were his hallmark.

Not since 1995, when he kept Tom Lehman at bay long enough to inspire his European Ryder Cup teammates to a devastating victory in Rochester, New York has Ballesteros been a force with club in hand.

Two years later he again inspired in his beloved Ryder Cup but this time as a captain.

The man with the fastest buggy in the west drove his troops on from the ropes to overwhelm a golfing foe again that were on paper supposed to be a far superior force.

Ballesteros weaved his magic so many times in the Ryder Cup as soon as Europe augmented Britain and Ireland in 1979, his sheer belligerence when faced with players from the US, turning the biennial contest into - well, a contest at last.

While his status in the Ryder Cup is assured, especially through his outstanding record in pairs with compatriot Jose Maria Olazabal, Ballesteros's achievements in strokeplay will perhaps be remembered even more vividly.

Love affair

Five major championships came his way, despite the rough - and in 1979 at Royal Lytham and St Annes a convenient car park - invariably seeing more of Ballesteros than the fairway.

A two-way love affair with the British public began in 1976, at his second (British) Open Championship, this one at Royal Birkdale.

Only 19 years old, without a word of English, Ballesteros burst on to the golfing scene in barnstorming fashion, charging into the lead and only losing his way through sheer inexperience in the final round to give best to Johnny Miller.

Even then he produced the shot of the Open at the end to ensure he finished in a tie for second place, just one of the strokes of a master that colored his career.

Plaques were put up at various venues to denote his achievements - at The Belfry where he was the first to drive the par-four 10th, for instance, and for a miraculous shot through branches over the Crans sur Sierre swimming pool in Switzerland.

He lifted the Claret Jug three times. His first Open success came with those memorable escapades at Lytham in 1979, where his devil-may-care golf once and for all made him a hero of his profession and encouraged thousands to take up the sport.

As one of the 'Famous Five' from his generation - Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle, Bernhard Langer and Ian Woosnam were his great rivals - Ballesteros not only helped put Europe on the golfing map but proved a spearhead for a force that would make certain America never again had it all its own way.

A year after his first Open title he was donning the Green Jacket at Augusta, marking in the 1980 US Masters that America's total domination was over in golf.

Three years later Ballesteros again won the Masters. But for one fatal slip late on in 1986, he would have worn one green jacket more.

In 1984 he fulfilled a dream when he won his second Open Championship at the Home of Golf, St Andrews. Four years later he repeated the feat after a titanic tussle with Nick Price.

That was to be the last time he lifted the famous old jug but certainly not the last time he thrilled the galleries.

His first Vardon Trophy as European number one came aged 19, too. Ballesteros went on to claim six Vardon Trophies in his own inimitable swashbuckling style, eventually chalking up no less than 87 worldwide titles and 50 on the European Tour.

The 1976 Dutch Open was his first; the 1995 Spanish Open, when his powers of recovery were beginning to wane and his perennial back problems beginning to bite, his last tour title.

Ballesteros fought his wayward swing and his back injuries stoically, but could not beat them both even though he could still show the subsequent eight-times European number one Colin Montgomerie a thing or two as late as 2002 when he was ailing badly, with a matchplay win in the eponymous Seve Trophy.

Plenty felt the wrath of Ballesteros and his battles with perceived 'enemies' are well documented. Only Ballesteros would dare accuse the European Tour of acting like the "mafia" during an Italian Open.

Caddies loved him but feared him. He had more caddies than the famous Lyons tea houses of London.

But even though he ran them ragged, bagmen like doyens Dave Musgrove and Pete Coleman will tell you that they would not have missed the experience for all the tea in China.

Agencies

(China Daily 07/18/2007 page23)