Golf broadcast moment of the week

Golf broadcast moment of the week

The tribute to the late Seve Ballesteros was a lovely touch, orchestrated by the PGA Tour, Nationwide Tour and Champions Tour to occur concurrently. Nice that the American-based tours would do this for a player who so embodied European golf, and did almost all of his playing on his home continent – only four of Seve’s Players Appear At Tim Tebow Charity Golf Event 88 international wins were regular PGA Tour stops.

The whole weekend of tribute to Seve, I thought, was impressive in its volume and sincerity. Ballesteros, in the end, was a player and a man whose impact exceeded his five major championships (two Masters; three British Opens). By sheer force of his charisma – the eye was always drawn to Seve – and by the power of his Ryder Cup heroism (only Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer and Colin Montgomerie have tallied more for Europe than Seve; and not by much), Ballesteros was larger than life.

I often crack Faldo in this space, and I sleep like an infant at night knowing that I am often correct in doing so. In fairness, I must take this space to say Faldo was great this past weekend in remembering his old Ryder Cup teammate, full of anecdotes and good vibes. “The greatest show on Earth,” Faldo called Seve.And an honorary navy blue Seve sweater to Peter Kostis of CBS, who did a beautiful job linking Seve’s game to today’s players. Kostis noted that Seve’s “creative genius, imagination and recovery skills” live on in Phil Mickelson; that his low hands at address live on in Rickie Fowler; and that the freewheeling abandon in his swing lives on in Bubba Watson.“The hands,” Kostis said, “were the genius behind Seve Ballesteros.”