Severiano Ballesteros, ever the maverick, wore his heart under his sleeve.
He boasted a permanent reminder of the 1984 Open triumph at St Andrews that he rated his greatest ever.
His celebratory fist pump following his closing birdie on the 18th green was etched not only in the annals of sports history but also on his arm.
He later used it also as the logo for his cancer research charity.
It was an iconic image that fused triumph and tragedy.
Here was a man who brought Latin fire and passion to the game after learning to play with only a cut-down 3 iron on the beach near his home in Pedrena.
He took golf to another level with an array of phenomenal shots.
The Open fell to him in 1979 before he went to America and won the Masters in 1980.
Ballesteros did it again in 1983.
Ballesteros was out of form in 1984
Author Kenny Reid has chronicled the Spanish maestro’s finest hour in Seve Ballesteros’s Touch of Class: The 1984 Open Championship and the Meaning of Europe’s Greatest Golfer.
He was in a slump before St Andrews and hadn’t won a golf tournament in 1984.
Kenny said Nick Faldo, Greg Norman and defending champion Tom Watson were “three very obvious favourites” in 1984 and few expected Ballesteros to contend.
Ballesteros would give credit to practice partners Jamie Gonzalez and Vicente Fernandez for providing a corrective swing tip that propelled him to victory.
Kenny said: “Seve started with a very solid 69, two shots back and with only four players ahead of him.
“Probably the highlight was a tramlined putt of about 40-feet up the four-foot slope to the top, narrow tier on the 12th.
“This was a great start on the holes back into the wind and the last of five consecutive threes around the turn.”
Bill Longmuir, Peter Jacobsen and Greg Norman shared the lead on five under with Ian Baker-Finch a shot back after a 68.
Ballesteros went one better on Friday and shot 68 after getting off to a flying start with a birdie putt at the opening hole.
His round was cemented by birdies at the 16th and 18th which more than made up for a bogey at the Road Hole 17th.
The Spaniard loved playing at the Home of Golf
“I am feeling much better,” said Ballesteros.
“I think it’s maybe because I am back playing in Europe and back in Scotland in particular.”
Kenny said Ballesteros revitalised European golf and the fans on these shores adopted him as one of their own.
“The 1970s was something of a grey period, with ongoing economic doom and gloom, here came this force of nature, a golfer the likes of which we’d never seen,” said Kenny.
“But Seve also seemed much more than a golfer – he was funny, brooding, charming, given to temper, adventurous, thrilling, and he could also hit some wildly bad shots.
“Followed by shots we couldn’t even visualise.
“I think the UK adopted Seve as one of our own, someone who could battle the status quo on the golf course, and challenge it elsewhere, too, almost mirroring a British society on its way to meritocracy.”
Ballesteros started his round on Saturday three off the pace with Baker-Finch leading at 10 under par.
His long approach to the 5th on Saturday from an awkward lie was a highlight of the round and described by playing partner Lee Trevino as a “touch of class”.
Ballesteros narrowly missed for eagle but secured his first birdie of the day.
Tom Watson shot 66 on Saturday to tie for the lead on 11 under with Baker-Finch.
Ballesteros and Bernhard Langer from West Germany were two back.
Tom Watson was the favourite to win
Some were forgetting that Watson led with 18 holes to play on the last occasion The Open was at St Andrews in 1978 and slumped to a 76 to finish 14th.
“I am happy with my position, but Watson is a great player and very strong,” said Ballesteros.
“He is the favourite, but I have got nothing to lose.”
There were 187,753 fans across the week at St Andrews in July 1984.
Fife Constabulary drafted in 60 extra special constables to complement the 150 police officers and make sure there were no hitches on the final day.
Baker-Finch never recovered from seeing his approach to the first green spin back into the Swilcan Burn that Sunday.
One crisis followed another for the young Australian while Langer’s putting would prove to be his Achilles heel.
Watson and Ballesteros turned the final round into a head-to-head duel.
Ballesteros opened with five straight fours, the last of the series being a birdie that put him into a tie for the lead.
He forged ahead with a birdie at the 8th.
It was a battle that changed after each of the first three holes of the back nine.
Road Hole masterclass was turning point
A masterly and controlled 6 iron into the 17th green of the final round would be key.
Ballesteros secured his par with two putts.
“On each of the first three days he had one-putt bogeys at the 17th, and they could all easily have become doubles in the hands of the lesser player,” said Kenny.
“Seve would have gone to the final tee full of supreme confidence after a great par.
“He hit a nice three-wood off the 18th tee, then a clipped sand wedge into about 16 feet below the hole.
Seve’s win, that moment, the collective joy and ecstasy will always be one of the greatest moments of my life,” Author Kenny Reid.
“He’d told his caddy, Nick DePaul, that if they birdied the hole, they’d win.
“I suspect this was part complete belief, part total commitment, focus and projection, plus he’d seen that as Tom Watson eyed up his second to the 17th, the American was in an ideal position, so nothing less than a birdie would do.”
He didn’t know Watson would make bogey.
Kenny said: “Seve’s putt had a clear borrow to the left, but in its initial rolling he felt he’d overcooked it break wise.
“But it toppled in.”
Ballesteros punched the air and his smile lit up St Andrews.
He finished two ahead of Langer and Watson.
“He hadn’t won The Open since 1979 and the celebration was just a bursting forth of Spanish elation, unbridled relief, too, perhaps,” said Kenny.
“I was there.
“Seve’s win, that moment, the collective joy and ecstasy will always be one of the greatest moments of my life.”
His 12-under-par total of 276, after a closing 69, was two strokes fewer than the previous best in a St Andrews Open set by Kel Nagle in 1960.
It was the happiest moment of Seve’s career
He admitted to a “lump in my throat” as he returned to the Old Course two days after his Open triumph in a one-club challenge for the Epson Trophy.
Ballesteros, improvising with carefree abandon like days of old when a teenager back in Spain, covered six holes in one over par, using only a 5 iron.
It was the perfect ending to an unforgettable time in St Andrews.
Ballesteros provided so many magical memories during a glorious career before he was taken by a cancerous brain tumour in 2011 at the age of 54.
His fist-pump and final putt at St Andrews in 1984 stood above them all.
“This was the happiest moment of my whole sporting life,” he said.
“My moment of glory.
“My most fantastic shot.”
- Seve Ballesteros’s Touch of Class: The 1984 Open Championship and the Meaning of Europe’s Greatest Golfer is on sale now.
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