Pele, Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Bjorn Borg, Ian Botham, Tom Brady - legends all. Individuals who epitomise everything that is best about the sports they played. Men who would have been heroes to a generation, who attracted millions to the sports they were masters of.
Golf is and always has been my sport. And I have had several heroes, golfers I looked up to, individuals whose skills I marvelled at. As a golfer of a certain age, my first was Arnold Palmer. Why? If you have to ask that question then you are reading the wrong article.
I am not exaggerating when I tell you that today’s players owe a huge debt of gratitude to the man they rightly called The King. The Open Championship was on its knees until Palmer crossed the Atlantic and won the Claret Jug in 1961 and 1962. It opened the floodgates for his fellow Americans to realise just how important the oldest major of them all really was and they started to come over in their droves - and dominate The Open.
Palmer oozed charisma. He was a swashbuckling golfer whose philosophy was to hit the ball as hard as he could, go find it and hit it again. Wherever he played, crowds came out in their tens of thousands to watch him. Arnie’s Army was almost as famous as the golfer himself. For those of you under the age of 40, think of the impact Tiger Woods had on the game and you will come somewhere close to understanding the role Arnie played in helping to develop and grow the game.
He was good-looking, athletic and he always had time for his fans.
Why is this relevant?
We asked two questions on Facebook: "Who was your golfing hero growing up?" and "Which golfer made you fall in love with watching golf?"
And here are the players who were mentioned most often:
- Seve Ballesteros (41.2%)
- Jack Nicklaus (12.0%)
- Nick Faldo (11.0%)
- Lee Trevino (9.4%)
- Arnold Palmer (6.5%)
- Sandy Lyle (5.5%)
- Tony Jacklin (4.5%)
- Tiger Woods (3.9%)
- Tom Watson (3.6%)
- Fred Couples (3.6%)
It should surprise nobody that Seve tops this poll. I followed Palmer throughout his career and loved watching Nicklaus, but Ballesteros was something else.
I still find it hard to credit that he only won five majors but it really shouldn’t be a surprise. Throughout his career he could barely find a fairway with a driver in his hands. But his powers of recovery were in a class of their own. There was no shot that the great Spaniard could not play. He was devastatingly handsome, incredibly charismatic and possessed a glorious smile. When Ballesteros walked into a room, everything stopped. Tragically, he was taken from us far too young but his legend lives on - and there is not a single Spanish golfer who does not idolise the great man.
This is what you had to say about Ballesteros….
"Met my hero quite a few times over the years. Seve was the Elvis of golf."
"I had the privilege to caddie for the great man on six occasions, everybody spoke about Tiger Woods being so talented, but nobody could shape a golf ball the way Seve did. Great man and sadly missed."
"Seve all day. His charisma was unmatched, his skill and imagination was true genius. He must have been responsible for numerous millions to have fallen in love with the game."
"Just Seve. Absolute legend and a character. He could do the impossible."
As a golfer, Nicklaus was, and remains, in a class of his own. You simply cannot argue with his record, the winner of 18 majors achieved over three separate decades. He was a sportsman personified. There were never any temper tantrums, never a hint of scandal. And he always handled defeat with good grace, accepting that he had been beaten by the better man - which did not happen often. He was also responsible for helping to reshape the Ryder Cup and remains one of the most influential figures within our sport.
Faldo was arguably the most single-minded golfer England has ever produced. A world-class golfer, he bizarrely decided that his swing was not good enough to win the majors he craved so he sought out David Leadbetter, rebuilt his technique, suffered for a while but then won six majors.
Trevino is the greatest shotmaker I have ever seen. He had a technique all of his own but it worked. And how! He was also a real character, constantly chatting and cracking jokes with fellow players and galleries alike.
Sandy Lyle was the first Briton to win The Masters and the first to win The Open since Tony Jacklin. He had a simple technique but, like so many others, tried to change his swing. He should have won far more than he did. Seve once described him as the best European golfer he had ever seen - and Seve knew a thing or two about great golfers.
For an all-too-brief period, Jacklin was the best golfer on the planet, winning The Open at Lytham in 1969 and the US Open by a staggering seven shots the following year. He had chances to win at least three more Opens but had to settle for two majors. He was also instrumental in changing Europe’s fortunes in the Ryder Cup and was a trailblazer for Europe on the PGA Tour.
There is nothing much to say about Tiger Woods that has not been said before. A hugely influential figure, he changed the modern game forever with his obsession with fitness. He won 15 majors and it would have been many more had his career not been blighted by a combination of horrific injuries and personal scandal. Even now, he continues to move the needle like no other golfer is capable of.
I would have expected Watson to have figured higher on this list. He was and is an absolute gentleman who won friends wherever he played. Nobody who witnessed it will ever forget his Duel in the Sun with Nicklaus at the 1977 Open at Turnberry or his heartbreaking near-miss at the same venue 32 years later at the ripe old age of 59. A legend in my eyes.
Couples remains one of the sweetest swingers of a golf club that the game has ever seen. As laidback a professional as I have ever witnessed and still striping it in his 60s.
Most of our respondents were over the age of 45, which may go some way towards explaining why the list does not include the likes of Rory McIlroy, although it came as a huge surprise to me that Gary Player did not figure.
I also have to say that heroes comes in all shapes and sizes. Yes, I loved Palmer, Nicklaus and Ballesteros, but the man who got me into golf was my grandfather, a player of some repute himself. He was largely responsible for my lifelong love affair with this sport and the people who play it.
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