25 years of European success with Seve as captain in the historic Valderrama Ryder

He is the player who changed the competition. Before he did it in golf and on the European circuit. Even if it’s like a ‘totem’ Jack Nicklaus said in 1987: “I don’t have a Seve Ballesteros in my team”. Since 1985 his charisma but, above all, his game and his fighting contributed to putting Ryder Cup at incredible heights of popularity, media and television interest, merchandising, and excitement. In 1979, when two players from the continent like Seve and Antonio Garrido entered the British team for the first time, the Ryder was just another tournament, without any of the impressive equipment that comes with it today. It was Nicklaus who suggested that Europeans join the team because otherwise there would be no game. No emotion, no conflict. And it was Seve and the US who took Ryder seriously.

Seve was captain of the European team in 1997 in Valderrama (Cádiz) although from 1983 to 1995 it was mostly in the shadows (to a greater extent with Tony Jacklinteam leader from 1983 to 1989, and to a lesser extent with Bernard Gallacher, which was from 1991 to 1995). In 1983, after losing by one point at PGA National, all the Europeans were sad in the locker room. To those Seve entered and said to them loudly: “But what are you doing sad and crying, that we are about to beat them and even in their house, be happy”. In 1985 Europe won at The Belfry for the first time since 1957 and in 1987 he also secured victory for the first time on American soil, and in Nicklaus’ ‘home’, with the Cantabrian achieving the final victory point.

Seve played 37 matches, including fourballs, foursomes and singles. His track record is impressive: 20 wins, 5 draws and 12 losses. and its relation to Txema Olazabal It must be described as truly amazing because, building a partnership with the Basque player, they lost only two games in 11 fourballs and foursomes. In 1979 he, along with Antonio Garrido, was the first golfer from continental Europe to be part of the team.

Thanks to Ballesteros, the Ryder Cup left the British Isles for the first time and arrived in Spain, in the historic edition of Valderrama’97. Seve led the European team very well, preparing the pitch as best he could. That week in Andalusia it rained unscripted, but in the end all the planned matches could be played. The inauguration was attended by the King and Queen of Spain, Juan Carlos and Sofiaand in closing, the Infanta Elena and the Prime Minister José María Aznar.

He was the first Ryder of a Tiger Woods who won his first ‘major’ that year, the Augusta Masters. In the European team, Olazabal and Nacho Garrido. And as Seve’s right hand he acted as vice-captain Miguel Angel Jimenez. ‘Pisha’ still remembers how Seve woke her up at 4 in the morning to discuss the couples the next day. “You want to make me sleep, milk… We can’t talk about this later,” the man from Malaga told her. Seve left and despite the rain and invasion of the green nang Colin Montgomery achieved the last point was able to enjoy his great moment.

La Ryder left the islands and went to Spain thanks to Seve, no doubt, but we should also highlight the work he did Jaime Ortiz Patino, the Bolivian known as the ‘king of tin’, who became president of Valderrama when the Ryder was held in the south in 1997. Organizing the Ryder was the great dream of his life. In his office he has a framed article from the English newspaper ‘The Times’ which referred to him as “a greenkeeper with exquisite Ming porcelain”. ‘Jimmy’, as his intimates call him, makes no effort to make Valderrama Augusta National Southern Europe. It was the first to pour water off the greens in the early hours of the morning after heavy rain flooded the course. If it wasn’t for the drainage and infrastructure of the field, for the water that fell, that Ryder wouldn’t have been played.

Seve pushed the European circuit to accept for the first time that the Ryder, the historic September 1997, left the United Kingdom to set foot on continental soil in Valderrama and, after the victory of the team he captained, said that the “Spanish” Ryder is “the best in history, for results, public, organization and sportsmanship”.