Despite being a lifetime below-average golfer myself, I have always loved watching the game and growing into adulthood in the mid 70s and 80s my golfing hero was the great Spaniard Severiano Ballesteros. His swashbuckling style cut a swathe through the rest of the robotic, characterless tour-players against whom he played and I can still remember exactly where I was when he made that historic, Open Championship-winning putt on the 18th green at St Andrews in 1984, what he himself later called "El Momento", as he celebrated with his iconic fist-pump to the heavens.
He at first single-handedly led the challenge of European golfers against the domination of the American professionals and where he led, others in the form of Faldo, Lyle, Woosnam, Langer and Olazabal would later follow, all subsequent winners of the U. S. Masters and indeed other major championships on the pro circuit. This all culminated in his sheer ability and force of personality causing the U. S. v G. B. Ryder Cup contest to extend to the whole of Europe and of course his subsequent fantastic playing record in the matches, especially in partnership with his fellow-Spaniard Jose-Maria Olazabal.
This powerful and emotional documentary told the story of his life and times going all the way back to his humble beginnings, then discovering his talent and exploding on the scene in the late 70s. Time probably didn't permit the showing of footage from his second Masters victory, nor did it cover his years of supremacy in the World Match Play Championship or the time when as non-playing captain, he led Europe to Ryder Cup success yet again.
I also felt more coverage could have been given to the enmity he initially felt from the partisan American galleries, where they insultingly called him "Steve" and would sarcastically cheer his bad shots on the course, although I suppose I should be grateful they didn't mention or play back his collapse at the Masters in 1986, when he threw away a winning position.
Most fittingly however, they finished on the European Ryder Cup "Miracle of Medinah" when, led by Olazabal and inspired by Seve's memory after he had passed away at aged only 54 the year before and with his name emblazoned on their shirts as inspiration, they staged a remarkable last-day comeback to win the contest. Olazabal's tearful reaction in his immediately succeeding interview is very moving.
The film only hints at some of the controversies in his life, like the assertion that his brothers controlled him, his match-play gamesmanship against his equally fiercely patriotic American rival Paul Azinger or that he may even have been something of a ladies man when out on tour, although this latter suspicion is largely quelled by the loving comments of his older brother, three children, surviving wife and sister-in-law.
I particularly relished the testimony of his sporting contemporaries, including not only great golfers like Azinger, Faldo, Langer and Montgomerie, but also his fellow-countryman Rafael Nadal and perhaps the one that would have mattered to him most, a ringing endorsement by his childhood hero, Gary Player.
We're told of his determination and dedication to his profession, later mirrored in his never-give-in attitude towards firstly the severe back condition which ailed him throughout his playing career but most obviously his battle with the brain tumour which afflicted him later in life and killed him way too young. It's sadly interesting to speculate that this terrible latter condition may have been behind the steep decline in his talent as well as fuelling the depression and sense of loneliness we also learn he bore for most of his life.
For all its omissions and occasional grandstanding with dramatic music and use of a recurring image of waves breaking on the shore, this was on the whole a fine and fitting tribute to a charismatic and brilliant player who re-energised one of the most visually boring of sports.
Adiós, Severiano...
