Seve Ballesteros' golf legacy endures 15 years after his death

• • Editor's note: This marks the 15th anniversary of the death of Seve Ballesteros. This story originally appeared in the May 13, 2011 issue of Golfweek. Jim McCabe was a senior writer for Golfweek who now runs the Power Fades newsletter.

Categorize this not as a confession, because that infers an acknowledgement of sin. Call it instead an admission, one for which there is not an ounce of embarrassment. Raised at a time in America when you were either an “Arnold guy” or a “Jack guy,” I was neither.

What stirred my passion for golf was a man of mythical proportions, for in a time before 24-hour television and dedicated sports channels, there weren’t many opportunities to see Severiano Ballesteros play, so what I read of him convinced me that he was one of a kind, a proverbial genius. Turns out, I wasn’t alone. Seve Ballesteros had a legion of loyal fans, most of whom fought back tears when word arrived May 7 that the Great Man had died at his home in Spain, surrounded by family.

Brain cancer, first diagnosed in October 2008, had proved too much for even the fiercest competitor golf has ever known. Ballesteros was too young, at 54. But take solace: His legend is immortal.