BBC SPORT | Special Events | 2001 | US Masters

BBC Sport Online's Charlie Henderson profiles former Masters champion Seve Ballesteros in the Spaniard's declining years.

"Every generation or so there emerges a golfer who is a little bit better than everybody else."

As the golfing world prepares for the potential inauguration of Tiger Woods as the first player to hold all four Majors at the same time, it would seem obvious that Lee Trevino was refering to the present world number one.

However Trevino was in fact talking about the world number one from 20 years ago.

"He's got everything - I mean everything: touch, power, know-how, courage and charisma," the American said of Seve Ballesteros.

Seve Ballesteros was unstoppable in the early 80s
Ballesteros won all his five majors in the 80s
Ballesteros turned up at the 1981 US Masters as the defending champion.

On his way to the green jacket 12 months earlier, when he was the first European to win at Augusta, he carded a record 23 birdies in becoming the youngest ever winner of the event.

The first of those scoring records fell to his compatriot, Jose Maria Olazabal, in 1991, and Woods took the second when he won his first Major in 1997.

But 20 years ago, the Spaniard did secure an Augusta record that no-one else was likely to match - that is until he repeated the feat three years later.

On each occasion that the Spaniard has won a Green Jacket in Georgia he has failed to make the cut the following year.

It is a microcosm of the fall from grace that Ballesteros has endured over the past two decades - from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Between 1979 and 1988 Ballesteros won five Majors playing elegant, adventurous, aggressive golf.

He also played with an infectious smile that endeared him to the galleries.

In the 90s that

smile has been seen only intermittently between the frowns borne of frustration at a lost ability.

Ballesteros frequently struggles off the tee with his driver.

His miraculous short game, which was characterised by shots from improbable positions, is not what it was either and cannot be called upon to repeatedly get him out of the trouble he so regularly finds.

A rare chapter of success in recent years came in 1997 - and it was equal to any Major that Ballesteros had won.

On Spanish soil at Valderamma, the then 40-year-old led Europe to a memorable victory in the Ryder Cup.

The win gave Ballesteros a new zest for the game and he declared that he would not captain Europe again as he would regain his place as a player in the 12-man team.

However, whereas he was able to inspire his team to greater efforts on the course, he could not perform the same trick on himself.

Although his heart was willing, as were those of the fans who feted him, his body and mind were found wanting.

The Spaniard's slide down the world rankings to the Stygian gloom of a place outside the top 200 has continued unabated.

It is a golfing underworld far removed from the courses and competitions that the likes of Woods grace.

John Paramor and Seve Ballesteros ponder the options
In the 90s Ballesteros has regularly found trouble off the fairways
However, in the run up to the Masters, in the less salubrious surroundings of Madeira, Ballesteros warmed up by making his first cut in six months.

Furthermore, the first three rounds where the best cumulative total he had scored for more than two years.

But, after a final round of 76, he fell from tied 18th to tied 47th.

Ballesteros and Woods may now stand at opposite ends of the professional golfing spectrum in 2001, but for a moment at least they will stand as equals at Augusta.

Both players have won five Majors.

As the competition develops from the first tee on the first morning, Woods will focus on extending that haul to six.

By contrast, Ballesteros will call on all the reserves of the skills Trevino identified just to stay for the weekend, and in the process avoid a fifth successive Masters missed cut.


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