This book would not have been possible without golfers who have been the greatest ever. The greatest, however, would not exist with there being great golfers, and very good golfers, and good ones, and not so good ones … and even those of us who may only be termed ‘hackers’. We all have our place in the pyramid.
But if there is one golfer who could be singled out it is the late Severiano Ballesteros. There are people of a certain age, particularly British males, who might not now be working in golf without the inspiration of the magical Spaniard who so utterly captured our imaginations. He invited us to love golf; we accepted willingly.
Seve’s major-winning days were behind him when I started working as a golf writer. But the first European Tour event on which I reported for Golf Weekly, the PGA Championship in 1991, was won by Ballesteros. On the 17th hole, he was in amongst the gallery, having almost found another fairway, when he was distracted by someone behind him. He whipped round, glaring at the miscreant and asked: ‘You nervooos?’ Then came that smile. ‘It’s ok, me nervooos, too.’ At the winner’s press conference afterwards, it was impossible not to be completely awestruck. Yet, looking around at all the hardened hacks who had covered Seve his entire career, they were all equally spellbound.
As Seve’s form waned, he found himself trying to explain why he had missed the cut, not why he had won. In Spain, where understanding of the sport was limited at the time, he would get frustrated with the press. But he always had words for the British writers who were present. It was his way of repaying them for following him over his entire career and, by extension, the British golfing public with whom he always felt the closest connection.
At the Ryder Cup in 1995, he played the most extraordinary golf for nine holes in the lead singles against Tom Lehman. The American seemed to find every fairway and every green. He never saw Seve, who was everywhere but on the fairways and the greens. Lehman should have been winning easily but he turned only one-up. Everyone on the property knew this was absurd and his fighting spirit helped inspire a European comeback to take victory that night.
But the most extraordinary thing I ever saw on a golf course came in the European Masters at Crans-sur-Sierre in 1993. Ballesteros was on the 18th hole having played the previous four holes in eagle-bogey-birdie-birdie. He was on a charge and it was thrilling, but now he missed the fairway on the right after a wild slice. Believing he needed one more birdie to have a chance to win, Seve looked at the shot he faced. His ball was six feet from a six-foot high wall. He was under the branches of a couple of trees. There was no way he could advance his ball to the green, except for the tiniest of gaps that only he saw. His caddie, Billy Foster, pleaded with his man to chip out sideways. ‘Seve,’ he said, ‘for the last time, it’s impossible.’
‘I don’t know why you think it is impossible?’ came the indignant reply. ‘I think it is possible. I can get it on the green. It’s a big risk but it is possible.’
Foster could not watch. No one could, except it was a good idea seeing how the ball might rebound anywhere from the wall. ‘He might kill himself,’ a colleague said. Seve swung and the ball did exactly what he wanted it to do, going over the water but under the tree branches, over a swimming pool, the corner of a hospitality tent, a tree and a bunker. Not quite exactly. The ball was not on the green but it was just in front of it. He was 18 yards from the hole and had to go over the corner of another bunker but with the same pitching wedge with which he had hit the previous miraculous shot, he chipped in. The noise was deafening in the Alps. Seve punched the air and kept on punching. Foster sank to his knees and bowed before his master.
Ballesteros ended up one short of the winner Barry Lane. When asked later why he did not play backwards to the fairway, as Foster had demanded, Seve said: ‘I wanted to make three. I was looking to win. I am always looking to go forwards, not backwards. I make more miracle shots than anyone else because I try harder than anyone else and take more risks.’ Later he got a big grin on his face and added: ‘If I play to the fairway it is not news. This is news. This is a story.’
It is no good the game’s greatest players providing great stories if there is no one around to tell them. The second debt this book owes is to the great golf writers of the past who have chronicled the game’s great players and great moments. Being sidetracked and led astray by the writings of greats from Bernard Darwin to Dan Jenkins while researching this book was time-consuming, inevitable and thoroughly enjoyable. Their gems provided the thread to follow on the winding trail from Allan Robertson to Rory McIlroy.
Among those quoted most often are:
Horace Hutchinson, twice Amateur champion and early golfing historian
Harold Hilton, twice Open champion and prolific golf writer and editor
Bernard Darwin, grandson of Charles; 1922 Walker Cup player, 1934 R&A captain, golf correspondent of The Times and peerless golfing author
Herb Warren Wind, writer for Sports Illustrated and The New Yorker, after whom the USGA’s annual book award is named
Charles Price, American golf writer and author, whose A Golf Story is a superb telling of the life of Bobby Jones and the history of the Masters
Pat Ward-Thomas, golf correspondent of the Guardian and columnist for Country Life
Henry Longhurst, columnist for the Sunday Times and television commentator
Peter Ryde, golf correspondent of The Times and co-editor with Donald Steel of the Shell International Encyclopedia of Golf
Peter Dobereiner, golf correspondent of the Observer and the Guardian, and columnist for Golf Digest and Golf World (UK)
Robert Sommers, author and longtime historian for the United States Golf Association
David Davies, golf correspondent of the Guardian
Peter Alliss, Ryder Cup player turned television commentator and golf writer
Donald Steel, sometime golf correspondent of the Sunday Telegraph and golf course architect
Dan Jenkins, writer for Sports Illustrated and Golf Digest, and one of golf’s funniest authors
Liz Kahn, British freelance golf writer who interviewed all the great American women players for her history of the Ladies Professional Golf Association
Lewine Mair, former golf correspondent of the Daily Telegraph
To all my current golf writing colleagues who have offered advice, opinions, guidance and encouragement, I am truly grateful, as ever. Thanks are due also for the sterling efforts of Charles Briscoe-Knight and Dale Concannon in providing most of the images for this book, as well as Marlene Streit and Karen Hewson, Director of the Canadian Golf Museum. No thanks is too great, nor praise too high, for all those at Elliott & Thompson who have brought this book into being, especially Lorne Forsyth, Alastair Graham, Olivia Bays and Nick Sidwell.