Seve Ballesteros Redefines 'Mulligan'

A withered but spirited Seve Ballesteros made his first public comments today about his battle with brain cancer. The legendary Spanish golfer, winner of five majors, fainted in the Madrid Airport six months ago and after being rushed to the hospital was diagnosed with a malignancy in the right side of his brain.

A legendary competitor and showman, Seve was one of the most exciting and likable faces of golf in the 70’s and 80’s, and even in his beleaguered current condition, the charisma and sense of humor that made him famous were much in evidence in today’s interview.

“I’m not called Seve Ballesteros,” he told the Spanish sports newspaper, Marca. “I’m called Seve Mulligan, because I’ve had the luck to be given a mulligan … the mulligan of my life.”

Ballesteros won the British Open three times and the Masters twice, taking home his first green jacket in 1980 with a dominant performance that made him the first European player to win at Augusta and, at 23, the youngest player ever to win the tournament (a record that was broken by a 21-year-old named Eldrick in 1997.)

Playing a different course today, and with much higher stakes, golf is still never far from Seve’s mind. “This is the most important shot of my life,” he told Marca. “I’m fighting to win my sixth major.”

(After the jump, Seve shows off his range with a putter in his hand.)

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.