Product Description

Severiano Ballesteros is charismatic and can be charming, but his personality comprises layers of intrigue. Robert Green has written an amazing portrait of the man whose mind has been described as 'a private forest, a place impenetrable, indeed dangerous to others'. Over the past twenty years no other journalist has enjoyed such regular contact with Seve - meetings, interviews, phone conversations and meals together, which have led to a video, a golf instruction book, many magazine features and now an autobiography. This extraordinary book begins with an incident on the first hole of the first series of fourball matches at the 1987 Ryder Cup, the year of Europe's first ever success in the USA, an incident encapsulating Seve's skill, bravado, what he brought to the Ryder Cup and his oft-expressed antipathy towards Americans. Green goes on to describe Seve's family and upbringing in Pedrena on Spain's North Coast, his first tour and first win. Seve's glory years: five major championships in ten seasons, not without grief, most notably in the Masters, where his two titles could easily have been five or six, are detailed; also how his skills and enormous popularity enabled the European Tour to flourish primarily based on his efforts. The section on the Ryder Cup describes how Seve emerged as a force and how without him, it wouldn't be the tournament it is today. The picture then turns blacker: the vehemence and verve with which Seve pursued victory in the Ryder Cup reflected the way he felt he had been treated on the US PGA Tour. Come September 2004, he became embroiled in a further spat after an apparent assault on a tour official in his home town. Green reveals Seve's dark side, the side the public seldom sees. With personal and third-party insights, he shows him how he is: his generosity, his gregariousness, his caprices and manipulativeness, his business affairs, his relationships with past managers, his relationship with his wife Carmen and his three children.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #254845 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 282 pages

About the Author
Robert Green is the founder and editor of 'Golf International' and has retained as main contributors to his magazine Seve, Nick Faldo, finest British golfer of his generation, and David Leadbetter, the world's leading golf teacher. He also runs the magazine's own shopping and instructional channel on Sky. He is one of the few journalists to get close to Seve over a period of twenty years. Robert Green lives in Islington, North London.

Customer Reviews

A legend
Seve is a legend and this book is a great read for golf fanatics with fond memories of the maestro in his prime. He tells his story with passion, humour and honesty which gives you fantastic insight into the fiercely competitive boy caddy that became the world number one golfer, a husband, a father and a businessman and the rebelious nature that always ensured Seve took the non conformant path less travelled by his golfing peers.

Seve, his story for once.
Contrary to the previous review, this autobiography is not a 'boring rant' but is very revealing about Seve's upbringing and his battles with various authorities to sell the great game of golf to his home country and the European tour.The Ryder Cup, especially, would not be what is today without the influence of Seve.

The book also made me aware of how early in his career his back problems started and how through great determination and self belief he became the most dominant and charismatic golfer of his era.

Fiercely competitive but with a genuine love of the game and its traditions, anyone who saw him play will always have fond memories of how he lit up the world of golf in the 70's and 80's.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a glimpse of the behind the scenes world of the 'European Arnold Palmer'. A book, written genuinely from the heart and I only wished he could have expanded more on the people he came across and the players he battled with.

A boring rant
Before i say this, let me tell you i love Seve. I think he is the greatest ever golfer, and i love watching the guy. With that said, his book bored me.
I enjoyed reading the first third of this book, but after a while, you begin to notice a pattern. It is basically just one big rant about all the things the golf world did during his career that he didnt agree with, what he felt about it, and then tells us how what he was doing was always right and how great he is.
When someone writes an autobiography, chances are i buy it because i already think they are great, and so i dont need them to keep telling me that throughout the book. Its fine for them to write down their successes, but there is no need to keep saying "look at me, wow, i did this, im fantastic"
I found this book very boring, needless to say