Dermot Gilleece recalls seeing Seve Ballesteros burst on to the scene for the first time in the Open at Royal Birkdale in 1976 in late August 1976
I saw Seve Ballesteros for the first time. Fifty years on, I’m also reminded that only a month previously he had taken the golfing world by storm by sharing second place behind Johnny Miller in the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale. Now he was rubbing shoulders with legendary figures such as Billy Casper and Gary Player as a star attraction in the Carrolls Irish Open at Portmarnock.
A personal highlight of the Ballesteros era was his return to the Irish Open at Royal Dublin in 1983, after missing the previous two staging due to a dispute with the European Tour over appearance money. Indeed it also caused him to be omitted from the 1981 Ryder Cup at Walton Heath, where Bernhard Langer was among those Europeans who felt he didn’t deserve to be selected.
Conscious of this, I felt moved to note in “The Irish Times” that his decision to mark his Royal Dublin appearance with a clinic for youngsters during Irish Open week, was no more than he was entitled to do.
Having played in the US the previous week, he came to Dublin via London. And as my luck would have it, the only newspaper he could lay his hands on during the flight was the one I wrote for at that time. The consequence was that he became extremely angry after reading what he viewed as an outrageous piece by your humble scribe. Indeed he was still seething when he was met at Dublin Airport by Paddy Rossi of the sponsoring company, Carrolls.
“Who this man Gilleechay?” he stormed, brandishing a copy of the offending newspaper. “Why he do this thing to me?” Then, with Rossi attempting to calm him down, he demanded there should be a printed retraction.
Given that the Carrolls man acquainted me of this little contretemps, you will understand why I made no special effort to meet, one-to-one, with the bold Seve that week. And as the tournament progressed and he achieved a dominant position en route to ultimate victory, his memory of my criticism began to fade. Indeed he never, ever mentioned it, despite the countless meetings we had over subsequent years, including a shared lunch in Dubai in 1997.
Christy O’Connor Snr
Christy O’Connor Snr was also in the ’83 field, prompting a distinguished visitor, Lee Trevino, to remark memorably that “Christy’s swing flows like fine wine.” As it happened, Himself was unwittingly responsible for introducing the teenage Ballesteros to Irish golf through his appearance in a European Tour event during the 1970s. Eagerly observing all the great players as part of his golfing education, the gifted young Spaniard studied the veteran Galwayman in action.
Some years later, when I met his older brother, Manuel, at La Manga, he recounted Seve’s reaction. Apparently the teenager had rushed into their Pedrena home exclaiming: “Manolo! Manolo! I have just watched a player with the most wonderful hands I have ever seen. His name is Christy O’Connor.” And Manuel, eight years his senior and a tournament player in his own right, smiled in agreement, because he, too, had marvelled at those wonderful hands, many times.
Late in 1974, still months away from his 18th birthday, Ballesteros made a surprise appearance in the Italian Open and proceeded to finish fifth behind Peter Oosterhuis in Venice. An astonishing talent was on his way.
All-round consistency, remarkable for one so young, made him Europe’s most successful player in 1975 and earned selection in the Rest of the World team for the Double Diamond Tournament at Turnberry.
There, his performance in gale-force winds caused quite a stir among seasoned observers and ultimately helped the side led by Gary Player to runner-up place behind the Americas. All of which prompted him to seek a place on the PGA Tour. Though he failed to secure a card on that occasion, he went the full distance in the Qualifying School, finishing 41st.
Early in 1977, Ballesteros embarked on 18 months of national service in Spain. Before this major upheaval in his career, however, he established himself as a serious international talent in golf. The highlight in this context was a share of second place with Jack Nicklaus behind Johnny Miller in the 1976 Open at Royal Birkdale.
Johnny Miller
This particular Open was also memorable for the tied-fifth finish by Christy O’Connor Jnr which earned him the reward of becoming the first Irish professional to be invited to compete in the US Masters, which he did the following April.
The Spaniard’s Birkdale performance became all the more remarkable for the manner in which he was supported by Miller through the critical, final nine holes. It was described graphically by Frank Keating in “The Guardian” in a piece accompanying the main report by the inimitable Pat Ward-Thomas.
Keating wrote: “After the 11th, the likelihood of Ballesteros dropping off the largest leaderboard like a brick out of a biplane, was very real. Miller soothingly piloted him through the disaster area and the boy gave up biting his lip and was cheerily ready to play dare again to the extent of thrilling birdies at the 13th and 14th, a rampaging eagle at the 17th and a celebration birdie for all the world in the vast arena of the 18th. The champion traditionally makes the last putt, but this time Miller put his in and then stood back to let Ballesteros sign off the Championship.”
It could be argued that with a winning margin of six strokes pending, Miller could afford to be generous. He went beyond such considerations, however, in his post-championship comments. “Don’t get me wrong,” he said, “but I think it’s a real good thing for Seve that he didn’t win. Day in day out, he wouldn’t yet be able to back it up. He might have been swamped by the resulting pressures. Now, lots of lovely things can happen to him because he’s come second. Just like me: best thing that happened to me was not winning the Masters in 1971, but coming second. It gave me just that bit more time to prepare myself for winning a big one.”
In 1973, Miller produced a championship-record final round of 63 to capture the US Open at Oakmont. And three years after Birkdale, Ballesteros gained a memorable triumph in the 1979 Open Championship at Royal Lytham.
Meanwhile, the Spaniard’s boyhood idol, O’Connor Snr, rolled back the years with a timeless performance at Portmarnock a month later, to be tied sixth behind the winner, Ben Crenshaw. But Ballesteros finished three strokes better to claim fifth place on his own, for prize money of £1,250. Indeed his Irish Open visits were sufficiently frequent and high in quality to allow him amass a formidable £87,390 in prize money alone, between 1976 and 1986. By that stage, he had won the title three times in 1983 and 1985 at Royal Dublin and at Portmarnock the following year.
Even when his game went into serious decline, Ballesteros was always welcome here. One such occasion was a visit in 2001 for the announcement of the Seve Trophy at Druids Glen in April of the following year. Seven weeks past his 44th birthday, he looked fit and relaxed in charcoal grey slacks and a light grey sweater, bearing the logo of the 2002 event. And he was happy to talk about his affection for this country, covering a quarter of a century since that Irish Open debut.
As part of the promotional effort, there was the sight of a Seve special onto the island green at the 190-yard 17th hole. It won him a bottle of Rioja, his favourite tipple, on the foot of a bet made with John Dully, chief executive of Failte Ireland, over dinner the previous night.
“It wasn’t as good as the shot at Royal Dublin,” he conceded with one of those special smiles. This was a reference to that controversial clinic he gave, on the Tuesday evening of Irish Open week in August 1983, when he hit a driver off his knees onto the green at the 255-yard 16th.
“That was a really good one,” he added with a broad grin. Another memory of that evening was watching him play miraculous bunker recoveries with an open-faced two iron.
And 18 years later, Gilleechay had the good sense to keep his mouth shut!
