In the early years of the Dubai Desert Classic there was no more popular competitor than Severiano Ballesteros. Seve was usually a contender to the last – and indeed was the winner of the tournament in 1992. He has continued to take part over the past few years despite the obvious fact that his golfing powers were waning. In recent years, in contrast to the smiling Seve of before, we have seen a man clearly not at peace with himself, or with his golf. I remember at Creek two years ago watching him struggle off the tee, and on the greens. His face was grim and he seemed older than his years. He was still courteous and professional, but the easy smile which used to signify how simple he found the game was gone.
Seve recently had to withdraw from the Irish Open having signed for the wrong score on one hole (a 10 instead of a 12!) - and he has now announced that he will not take part in this year’s “Open Championship” at Muirfield. Is this the end of his great career? Seve’s slump in form has lasted so long that one perhaps must accept that he will never again play at the highest level. On the other hand Nick Faldo, only a couple of years younger than Seve, seems to have a new lease of life and is competing very close to the top again. Faldo’s performance in the U.S. Open was superb, finishing in the top 10 and also scoring the lowest single round of the championship. It would not be a total surprise if Faldo won at Muirfield, a course on which he has already won two “Opens”.
It would need a highly skilled sports psychologist to explain why Ballesteros has so lost his form and why Faldo has regained much of his. I would like to suggest one reason. Nick looks as if he is enjoying his golf again. Reunited with his long term caddie Fanny and newly married (again!) Faldo looks at peace with the world and with himself. Those who bumped into him during this year’s Desert Classic commented how charming he was (not a word always associated with the rather brash young Nick Faldo)! Seve, on the other hand, looked tired and drawn. When things went wrong (as the always will, at any level, in this diabolical game) Seve looked as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders. Any smile was forced - more to mask despair than as a natural reaction.
What can the ordinary golfer learn from the trials and tribulations of Severiano Ballesteros (and the contrasting better fortunes of Nick Faldo)? First and foremost we must learn that golf is only a game. Those of us who pay money to play do so (presumably) because we want to. Because we enjoy the experience. When it becomes a burden if we lose our form, or if we think that we always get the wrong rub of the green, then the enjoyment goes with it. This can then lead to a vicious circle of golfing depression. We play badly. The luck goes against us and we play even worse. We don’t enjoy the experience and so we play even more dreadfully! When we play well then we can enter a virtuous circle. A couple of good holes and we begin to believe that, yes, we can play the game. So on the next tee we drive with confidence, and not with worry. And so we may carry on playing better.
The extremes I have sketched out do not, generally, happen like that, of course. In any one round we will have the highs of good holes mixed in with the lows of the disasters. The challenge, which every golfer knows, is always to move on to the next shot, the next hole, and the next round and forget what went before. Easier said than done.
But for Seve it does look as if (in the words of Grantland Rice) that the “last game may be done” and that his “last score may be in”. If so then we can all, without question, say - in the words of the same poet - that he deserves to enjoy his retirement and to be the one who “in the night, beyond the fight …finds his rest at last”. With Seve we will remember his great triumphs, but we will also remember with great affection “how he played the game”. He has earned his rest.
Seve recently had to withdraw from the Irish Open having signed for the wrong score on one hole (a 10 instead of a 12!) - and he has now announced that he will not take part in this year’s “Open Championship” at Muirfield. Is this the end of his great career? Seve’s slump in form has lasted so long that one perhaps must accept that he will never again play at the highest level. On the other hand Nick Faldo, only a couple of years younger than Seve, seems to have a new lease of life and is competing very close to the top again. Faldo’s performance in the U.S. Open was superb, finishing in the top 10 and also scoring the lowest single round of the championship. It would not be a total surprise if Faldo won at Muirfield, a course on which he has already won two “Opens”.
It would need a highly skilled sports psychologist to explain why Ballesteros has so lost his form and why Faldo has regained much of his. I would like to suggest one reason. Nick looks as if he is enjoying his golf again. Reunited with his long term caddie Fanny and newly married (again!) Faldo looks at peace with the world and with himself. Those who bumped into him during this year’s Desert Classic commented how charming he was (not a word always associated with the rather brash young Nick Faldo)! Seve, on the other hand, looked tired and drawn. When things went wrong (as the always will, at any level, in this diabolical game) Seve looked as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders. Any smile was forced - more to mask despair than as a natural reaction.
What can the ordinary golfer learn from the trials and tribulations of Severiano Ballesteros (and the contrasting better fortunes of Nick Faldo)? First and foremost we must learn that golf is only a game. Those of us who pay money to play do so (presumably) because we want to. Because we enjoy the experience. When it becomes a burden if we lose our form, or if we think that we always get the wrong rub of the green, then the enjoyment goes with it. This can then lead to a vicious circle of golfing depression. We play badly. The luck goes against us and we play even worse. We don’t enjoy the experience and so we play even more dreadfully! When we play well then we can enter a virtuous circle. A couple of good holes and we begin to believe that, yes, we can play the game. So on the next tee we drive with confidence, and not with worry. And so we may carry on playing better.
The extremes I have sketched out do not, generally, happen like that, of course. In any one round we will have the highs of good holes mixed in with the lows of the disasters. The challenge, which every golfer knows, is always to move on to the next shot, the next hole, and the next round and forget what went before. Easier said than done.
But for Seve it does look as if (in the words of Grantland Rice) that the “last game may be done” and that his “last score may be in”. If so then we can all, without question, say - in the words of the same poet - that he deserves to enjoy his retirement and to be the one who “in the night, beyond the fight …finds his rest at last”. With Seve we will remember his great triumphs, but we will also remember with great affection “how he played the game”. He has earned his rest.
