Severiano Ballesteros

The most successful player in the history of Spanish golf, Severiano Ballesteros has struggled on the fairways after the euphoria of his historic win as captain of the 1997 European Ryder Cup team. Without a victory since the 1995 Open de España and well down the order of merit, he is in his last year (2001) of category one status (according to the exempt system under which tournament fields are determined) as number one in the 1991 order of merit. If he again finishes outside the top 115 on the 2001 tour (i.e. those retaining their cards automatically) he will have to rely on invitations and his position among the top 40 of the career money list (conferring category nine status) - not that too many tournament organisers/sponsors would be likely to pass up the opportunity of having the tour’s most illustrious honorary member in their fields.
Those who have closely followed his career to date will be well aware that in the past he has proved adept at confounding the critics and resurrecting a seemingly floundering career. In 1990, for example, he slipped to 18th in the European order of merit, after never having been out of the top 10 since 1975. With the critics queuing up to declare that his career was over, he headed to Japan early in the year and won the Chunichi Crowns Open, before returning to Europe triumphantly and collecting the Volvo PGA Championship title (with the British Open and the Volvo Masters, one of the three flagship events of the Tour). He won one more official European event that season, plus the World Matchplay Championship, and finished the year atop the order of merit for a sixth time. Then there was 1994. The previous season he once again had slumped to 42nd in the order of merit and, more significantly, for the first season in his career had failed to win at least one tournament. The critics once again joined the fray but by the end of the new season he had won twice and finished third in the money list. In a 1995 season cut short by his withdrawal from the tour following the Ryder Cup victory in New York, he fell to 33rd but still managed to win the Peugeot Spanish Open in May. Now 44 and with a wife, two sons and a daughter to dedicate time to, as well as his golf business interests, Seve might soon decide to let his remarkable career speak for itself - while keeping his game honed with a limited schedule in preparation for the seniors tour in 2008. In the meantime, however, few would be all that surprised to see his name on another European Tour event, spanning four decades.