Arnold Palmer, Ben Crenshaw, Olazabal pay rich tributes to late Seve Ballesteros at Champions Dinner Last-part
Continued from: Arnold Palmer, Ben Crenshaw, Olazabal pay rich tributes to late Seve Ballesteros at Champions Dinner Part-1
Palmer said, "One of my last defeats, after I was old and not playing, I played in the World Match Play, I played Seve and I was one up going to 18 at Wentworth. He was in the woods and I was just a foot or two short of the green in two".
"I didn’t know where Seve was. I couldn’t see him. And he holed it for 3 out of the woods and I lost the hole and lost the first extra hole".
In his trailblazing career, Ballesteros won a whooping 91 professional events, with no fewer than 50 coming on the European Tour. He still holds the record of winning the most events on the European Tour.
He shot to fame at the 1976 Open Championship when, at the age of 19, he posted a runners up finish.
After turning professional in the year 1974, Ballesteros became the talk of the town in his home country, winning laurels for his mother land every now and then.
His blistering career spanned from 1970-1990 where he went over to win five major events. He won the Masters twice in his career in the years 1980 and 1983.
In 1999, Ballesteros was inducted in the World Golf Hall of Fame.
He played an instrumental role in establishing the Seve Trophy, an event designed on the footings of Ryder Cup and is played between the teams of Great Britain and Ireland and the Continental Europe.
Crenshaw, one of the many high profile celebrities in the dinner, also lauded Ballesteros contribution to the sport.
He said, “He just had that aura about him. Always did. He just loved competition. My God, he was a maestro”.
Ballesteros also holds the credit of introducing the sport in continental Europe, which has always been the home of Football and Tennis.
His able guidance saw the emergence of many Spanish golfers of the likes of Olazabal, Jose Manuel Lara, Sergio Garcia, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Alvaro Quiros and many others.
The Champions Dinner, one of the many traditions of the Masters, was attended by all the players in the field who gathered to relish the moments of the greatest golf events in the world. The event will officially kick off tomorrow morning.
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