Seve personifies intensity
By PATRICK McMANAMON
Scripps Howard News Service
SOTOGRANDE, Spain -- Seve Ballesteros sat up in his bed Thursday
morning and saw that it was 4:30.
He started to think about the weekend's Ryder Cup matches,
got up, paced and thought some more. Finally at about 5:15 he
picked up the phone and called his right-hand man, Manuel Angel
Jimenez.
"Come to my room," Ballesteros said. "He thought
I was crazy. But I had a rough idea of the pairings (for Friday's
foursome matches), and I thought it was a good idea if we talked.
Besides, I always think that in the morning I am more sharp."
Jimenez joined Ballesteros and the pairings were determined.
"Ok, I told him," Ballesteros said, "you can
go back to bed and I will read a newspaper. And that is what happened."
It's been that kind of week for the European captain. The man
who brought the Ryder Cup to Spain and did so much for European
golf has been a swirl of constant movement.
He walked all 18 holes of Valderrama before anyone played a
practice shot -- just to make sure conditions were proper. He
woke up one morning at 4 to take some notes -- just to make sure
he wouldn't miss something. He tooled around the course in his
golf cart, giving England's Prince Andrew a ride, correcting flaws,
cheerleading and sending jibes to his players.
"His intensity in trying to beat the Americans is second
to none," Colin Montgomerie said. "And it's showing.
It's fantastic."
Ballesteros won't hit a shot this weekend, but his impact will
be immense. As a player, he was a second captain on the course.
Now he hopes he can have the same influence as a non-playing captain.
"I'm a Spaniard," Ballesteros said. "I have
hot blood, and I will try to transmit to the team as much confidence
as I can."
One of the more famous pictures from the past few Ryder Cups
is of Ballesteros standing on a fairway. Jose Maria Olazabal leaps
behind him and puts his hands on Ballesteros' shoulders. It appears
he is floating on Ballesteros' back.
The symbolism couldn't be more rich. Ballesteros put Olazabal
on his back when the two were partners, and together they went
10-2-2.
Now Ballesteros is putting the entire European team on his
back, and telling it to come along for the ride.
"He's our Arnold Palmer," Nick Faldo said.
Measure those words carefully. Faldo, one of the best in Britain,
said he was inspired by Ballesteros. Jesper Parnevik said Ballesteros
was his inspiration when he took up golf.
Ballesteros won three British Opens and two Masters and 72
tournaments worldwide, creating shots from impossible positions.
In 1979 he hit a shot out a parking lot en route to winning
his first British Open. In 1983, he hit the green with a 247-yard
three wood from a bunker to halve a Ryder Cup match -- a shot
Jack Nicklaus called the finest he'd ever seen.
Ballesteros also brought an attitude to the Ryder Cup when
it was expanded to include all of Europe instead of just England
and Ireland. U.S. players have griped that Ballesteros coughed
and practiced his stroke in their peripheral vision as they putted,
and falsely accused them of breaking the rules. Ballesteros went
on his way, winning and urging on his teammates.
This week, when the U.S. players complained about the way Ballesteros
designed Valderrama's 17th hole, he said too bad. "I told
the Europeans, if they don't like it win the match 3-and-2,"
he said.
"He's as good a captain," Olazabal said, "as
he was a partner."
During practice, it seemed Ballesteros walked the line between
keeping his team intense and getting too uptight. He's been serious,
relaxed, insightful and funny.
When Ballesteros saw Ian Woosnam in the woods, he drove up
in his cart and said: "You're starting to play like me."
When he saw Montgomerie in the thick rough behind a tree, Ballesteros
yelled across the fairway: "Easy shot."
But when Ballesteros drove by Darren Clarke and saw him hitting
a sand shot incorrectly he stopped and showed him how to hit the
shot.
"If I see there is any fault with any player -- and that
includes Nick Faldo -- then I will go over and say so and try
to put it right," Ballesteros said.
"It's almost like it's Seve's Ryder Cup," Montgomerie
said. "He is captain in Spain and it's a big deal to him.
I'd take 14-all to keep the Cup for Seve's sake. I'd hate for
him to have to hand it over."
(Pat McManamon is the national sportswriter for Scripps Howard
News Service.)
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