Would you agree the greats of the game have left their mark as much by the sort of the characters they were as the titles they won?
Absolutely, no question. That’s the legacy they left more than anything else – the kind of personality they were. I can tell you a lot about the personalities, but I wouldn’t be so accurate in terms of citing how many majors each of them won.
Can you name any specific moment when a great golfer showed his true character?
I think Seve Ballesteros’s putt on the 18th hole at St Andrews in 1984, when he beat Tom Watson (for The Open Championship), was special. That was a special Spanish 'matador' moment. I was a young boy and that made a big impression on me. It certainly summed up Seve’s personality more than any other shot that I can remember Seve hitting. It meant so much to him, and the fact that the ball hung on the lip and fell in was just an example of Seve’s sheer will to succeed.
Was he a player you looked up to? Miguel Ángel Jiménez said it wasn’t anything that Seve taught him, but more Seve’s personality that inspired him.
Yeah, absolutely. His unquenchable desire to play well and to succeed. To a large extent, he was different from the other guys. He was a trailblazer when he went to America, when he played in the championships over there and when the Europeans were taking on the Americans in the Ryder Cup, the way he did. He was the focal point of the charge that’s now on again with the younger players today, but it was Seve who led it and 1984 sticks out a lot for me.
Can you talk about some of the time you spent with him?
He was captain for me twice when I played in the Royal Trophy. I really enjoyed his captaincy. He didn’t captain with the same intensity as when he was a Ryder Cup captain, but that’s understandable as the Ryder Cup [in 1997] was in his home country and it was against the Americans. However, he saw the importance of the emergence of Asian players and hence his company set up the Royal Trophy which I hope will go on to be a very successful tournament. It will also act as a great legacy to Seve as well. Like Miguel, I just enjoyed being around him, enjoyed his company, listening to him talking about his victories and the different events he played in, the shots he played and how he perceived them, how he thought in different situations and what he thought of his competitors as well, so it was interesting to get an insight into that.
