Seve Month

Allright, I'm upping the ante on GolfChannel's 7-day celebration of really friggin' fantastic golf events. I know there's a lot of golf to be played between now and The Open at St. Andrew's, and I know I've been critical of tournaments and organizations who in the past have toed the line of their week-long moment of fame as being disrespectful of the prior tournament. But this is not about a tournament. Mind you, if it WAS going to be about a tournament, The Open at St. Andrews is probably the one I'd pick. But it's not about that tournament and all it's history, and it's not about that POS course that everybody wants to play but nobody truly likes to play. It's about the man. It's about Seve.

Most people acknowledge Severiano Ballesteros as being one of the true geniuses of the short game in golf. I can't possibly argue with that. What most everyday US golf fans don't realize is just how mythical Seve is to all European golf fans of my generations (born in the mid-sixties).

Seve was one of the first continental European golfers who went on to be true world-beaters. And I'm from Sweden. My country isn't even on the continent. But sure as snot, we claimed him as our own as true as if he'd grown up in Hassleholm. When he'd come to play in SEO, he would draw record crowds, regardless of who else was playing.

He's a top-10 golfer of all time, and like Hogan much of his career was curtailed by injuries. He's right up there with Hagen and Jones and Benjamin and Nicklaus and Faldo and Watson and Woods. In his career Seve won 91 pro tournaments, 50 of which were on the European tour. He still holds this record. With five major championships he's only exceeded by about a dozen other golfers.

You know he's been sick. I don't know about you, but the article in last month's Golf Digest brought tears to my eye, and I almost never cry about golf. This year he's agreed to participate in the celebration of 150 years of British Open golf by participating in a four-hole tournament on The Open week. He won the British Open at St. Andrews in 1979 in spectacular fashion, the same way he played every round of golf before or since.

Without further ado, welcome to SEVE MONTH. Four weeks dedicated to a true living master of the craft of golf. I'd love to hear your Seve stories and your Seve memories. I will try to do my part by recounting the story of his life and the Top 10 Seve Moments of his career.

Truly, in every sense of the word, I'm not worthy.