Seve Ballesteros

Seve Ballesteros was a Spanish professional golfer and golf course architect, born on April 9, 1957 in the fishing village of Pedreña in Cantabria, in the north of Spain. His full name was Severiano Ballesteros Sota. He turned professional in 1974 and won five majors: the Open Championship in 1979, 1984 and 1988, and the Masters in 1980 and 1983. His Open win in 1979 made him the youngest champion of the twentieth century, and in 1980 he became the first European player to win the Masters. His official site puts his career total at 93 wins, 50 of them on the European Tour. He played eight times for Europe in the Ryder Cup and captained the European team to victory at Valderrama in Spain in 1997. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1999. He was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2008 and died at his home in Pedreña on May 7, 2011.

His golf course design work was carried out through Trajectory, his own design company. The Heritage in Ireland, designed with Jeff Howes and opened in 2004, and Porto Santo Golfe on the Portuguese island of Madeira, also opened in 2004, are among the courses known as his. Ahead of the 1997 Ryder Cup he was involved in reshaping the 17th hole at Valderrama, the host course.

His connection with Asia begins with his record in Japan. He won the Japan Open in 1977 and again in 1978, and also took the Dunlop Phoenix in 1977 and 1981, the Taiheiyo Club Masters in 1988 and the Chunichi Crowns in 1991. In Southeast Asia, Mountain Creek Golf Resort and Residence, at Sikhio in the Thai province of Nakhon Ratchasima, is his design. The club’s official site relates that executives of the development company travelled to Spain to sign a design contract with Trajectory, and that three nine-hole courses — Highland, Creek and Valley, 27 holes in all — were built from the plan Ballesteros drew up. Material from the design team gives the opening as January 2012 and describes it as the only Ballesteros course in Thailand. The club’s official site says that Ballesteros himself called the course his masterpiece.

Among the courses GoGolf lists, one is his work: Mountain Creek Golf Resort and Residence in Thailand, which can be booked through GoGolf.

Ballesteros courses you can book on GoGolf

• Mountain Creek Golf Resort and Residence (Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand) — 27 holes, opened 2012

Tee times and rates for a given day can be checked on each course page or in the GoGolf app.

See the other golf course architects here.