Seve Ballesteros motivates European Ryder Cup team
The European Ryder Cup team received a very inspiring phone call from the Spanish legend Seve Ballesteros yesterday. The call was just in time since the Ryder Cup will tee of tomorrow at 7: 45 BST at Celtic Manor in Wales.
The Captain Colin Montgomerie, said the phone call was motivational, however, it was depressing at the same time. The all time golf super star was still recovering after he was operated on to remove a brain tumour he was suffering from. Even though he was
invited, due to his poor health, he will not be able to attend the cup this year, but according to Montgomerie, his speech was a huge motivation to the team.
Ballesteros has had an amazing career as a Ryder Cup player and a captain.
Seve or Severiano Ballesteros is a Spanish golfer, who used to be World No. 1 as well. He was a very famous name in the sporting world. In 1976, at the age of 19, he finished second at The Open Championship. Seve has a family history of good golf and has
been victorious in five major tournaments between 1979 and 1988. His wins include The Open Championship three times and The Masters twice. His participation in the various Ryder Cups as both captain and player has Europe to five wins. Ballesteros is famous
for his amazing short game and great driving of the ball.
During the 1990’s, Ballesteros experienced back injuries and his health kept decreasing. Due to continued poor form, he retired from competitive golf in 2007. Soon after his retirement, Seve suffered from a brain tumour. In 2009, he was awarded the Lifetime
Achievement Award for the second time at the BBC Sports Personality Awards.
Montgomerie said that Ballesteros talked to the team for 10 minutes and it was very passionate and motivational to hear him. He said that it really affected the rookies. The conversation was held in the team room where Seve was on the speakerphone.
Monty reported that after the conversation had terminated, there was a whole new sense of passion in the team room. All the players had really taken Seve’s words to heart and had clearly been infatuated by him.
Montgomerie has played with Seve three times in the Ryder cup and in the fourth time, Ballesteros was his captain. Colin said that Seve is very ardent about sport and golf and obviously the Ryder Cup.
Paul McGinley, who is one of Colin’s vice captains, is especially close to Seve. They were in contact on regular basis and he proposed the idea of Seve talking with the team. Looking at how much difference just one phone call has made, it was a genius idea
that McGinley had.
When asked what exactly the golf legend said in the speech, Monty answered that the speech was somewhat like the speech Ballesteros delivered in 1997. Ballesteros was captain of the Ryder Cup then. Seve was very open to the team and analyzed their chances
of winning and appreciated the team that had been selected and those who qualified.
The captain really emphasized the fact that this cup is extremely important to the European Tour and the European cause. Monty said that ‘it was for Europe’. He ruled out the possibility that he ever wanted to shine in Ryder only to play in America. It was
Europe all the time. The speech instilled in the team the determination to win the cup back that they lost in Valhalla in 2008.
Apart from Seve Ballesteros, Wales Rugby star, Gareth Edwards met the team as well. Former Ryder Cup Captains Sam Torrance and Ian Woosnam also interacted with the players.
The captain said, "I don't feel that the need of motivation was there. The passion was there. But motivation, we don't need motivation. Motivation came from losing two years ago".
With the players and the captain pumped up, the Ryder Cup is bound to get even more exciting. If the European team is passionate, the Americans are hot-blooded as well. Ryder fever starts tomorrow as both the teams battle to take the cup home.
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