Golf Ball Marker Collectors Club.

The Spanish golfing maestro Seve Ballesteros, sadly lost his last match on the 7^th May 2011 at the  early age of just 54 against a combination of respiratory failure and a cruel series of brain tumours.   The genius, legend and inspiration of all European professional golfers through the 1980’s and 1990’s as well as to many millions of club golfers will be sadly missed, but not forgotten.

This small tribute includes some ball markers pictures from some of his triumphs that we would like to remember him by. If you have some others that you would like to forward the scans of, they will be added to the site.

Seve won the first of three open championships in 1979 at Lytham St Annes beating Jack Nicklaus and Ben Crenshaw by three shots. The following year he won the Masters (the first European to win) by 4 shots.  He won it again in 1983 and provided the catalyst for other Europeans to challenge and win at Augusta shortly after.   In 1984 he won the open again, this time at St Andrews. His last open championship win came in 1988, again at Royal Lytham.

He was European No 1 in 1991 for the 6^th time in his career and won 50 European tour events in total.

Seve loved matchplay. He won the World Matchplay 5 times at Wentworth between 1981 and 1985. Ryder cup was though arguably his greatest challenge and thrill. He was a big part of the European team that won in the US for the first time in 1987 and it was there at Muirfield Village  that the amazing   partnership was established with Jose Maria Olazabal that saw them win 11,and halve 2 of the 15 times they were paired together. In all, Seve played in 8 Ryder cups and captained a winning team at Valderrama in 1997.

 My biggest memories of Seve will though be not what he won, but the way he played the game and won.  In Seve's world it didn’t matter where you are on the golf course after your tee shot.  A large dose of imagination, a lot more skill, a swagger, a smile and the course, hole or opponent would be beaten with great enthusiasm and pride.

God bless you Seve.  The memories will last forever.