The Parking Lot Open By Andrew Wood Print E-mail
“No matter how tough a shot your opponent faces, assume he’ll make it. That way you won’t be shocked if he does.” Dean Beman

Seve Ballesteros has won many championships using the creative talent that has been his trademark and made him famous. One of the best examples of his special ability in this department was the 1979 British Open, where he won in spite of hitting his tee shots just about everywhere except on the fairways of the Royal Lytham and Saint Anne’s Golf Course!

Standing on the 16th tee, Ballesteros had already hit both of the fairways he would hit with his driver that day. The question was not so much whether he would miss the fairway but by how much. With his usual swashbuckling swing, Seve sent the ball far to the right of his intended line. At a point some 260 yards down the fairway, the ball sailed over the heads of the large crowd, by now 20 or 30 people deep, lining the right side of the hole. The ball finally came to rest in an overflow parking lot, where it rolled under a car. It may have been one of the wildest shots in the long history of Championship golf, missing the center of the 16th fairway by almost 100 yards. It was still in bounds -- nobody was expected to hit a shot that far from the fairway!

After his ball had been retrieved from beneath the car by a tournament official, he was awarded a free drop under Rule 24, and he studied his approach shot. Incredibly, the position from which he now had to play gave him a very good line into the flag. So, despite going where no man had gone before, it was no great surprise to his fans, who are accustomed to such heroics, when his second shot arched towards the flag. He was left with a makeable 20-foot putt. Make it he did, and after a couple more wild drives on 17 and 18, followed by two more remarkable recovery shots, Seve’s victorious scorecard was signed, sealed and delivered.

To the casual observer Ballesteros may have appeared to be the luckiest man alive that week, constantly putting his ball in previously unexplored territory, seemingly with no regard for the way the architect had laid out the golf course. In fact, Ballesteros had developed a strategic plan for accomplishing his goal. It was bold and it was brash, but it was creative and he did win.

While practicing for the tournament, Ballesteros had realized that almost all the trouble spots, from the deep-set fairway bunkers to the heavy rough, were situated between 240 and 270 yards from the tee. Most players would be playing three-woods and one-irons and threading the middle of the fairways. Ballesteros decided it would make little difference whether or not his ball finished in the fairway if he could hit his driver over 270 yards, since he would be beyond the traps and the heavy rough. The sparse rough from which he would have to play was really not much of a handicap, especially considering the shorter yardage he would have left to the flags, compared to his competitors.

Seve’s drive on the 16th was labeled by most observers one of the worst they had ever seen. They had no way of knowing Ballesteros was aiming for the parking lot! It was part of the creative approach he employed in winning his first major championship, and typical of the imaginative and daring style that has made him a legend.
 
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