The all-time leader in the European Tour victories with 50 points has gathered 5 Major Championships. These are the 1980 and 1983 Masters Tournament and the 1979, 1984, 1988 British Opens.
Born on April 9, 1957 in Pedrena, Spain, Severiano Ballesteros joined at least 6 PGA Tours and 56 European Tours. On top of that, he was a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, awarded as the 2000 Spanish Sportsman of the Century and the 2000 European Player of the Century. He was the team Captain of the European players for the Ryder Cup where he was a member 8 times. He was also a 6 time scoring leader of the European Tour.
Seve grew up in a family of good golf players. He has three brothers who were professional golfers and his uncle, Ramon Sota, finished 6th place at the 1965 Masters Tournament. Seve started playing golf when he was 7 years old. He used a cut-down 3-iron then. When he turned 13, he was already winning several events and shoots 65.
He became professional when he turned 16 in 1974. He won the Spanish Professionals Championships that same year. In 1976, he won the European Tour five times and ranked at the top of the money title. When he was 19, he settled second place after Johnny Miller at the British Open. Growing up, he was coined to be the Arnold Palmer of Europe because of his 4 victory shots made at the Lancome Trophy. He became very charismatic, good looking and aggressive player taking the European Tour to higher heights. His performance was known to lift the standards and quality of the Ryder Cup.
One of the highlights in Seve’s career was in 1978 when he played several tournaments in six consecutive weeks in different places. After the 5 majors at the British Open and the two titles at the Masters, Seve was, however, disqualified in the U.S. Open in 1980 because he came in late for tee time.
