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My abiding memory of an epic match was that between Nick Price and Seve Ballasteros in The Open at Royal LythamSt. Annes in 1988. Seve as a mercurial maestro had a 30 out and a 37 in on the first day..... A cold and windy one. This left him trailing by two at the end of the third round. On the last day Nick Price's long iron to 2 feet emulated by Seve's shorter, albeit a five-iron to six feet was the crowning moment for me. Eagles for threes were their reward! Following on Seve strung a further three 3s together for four straight threes ..... What a performance. Price's shot at the thirteenth almost bagged him a second eagle and his birdie putt was matched by Seve from nigh on twenty feet. A gorgeous chip from the back of the eighteenth green was so nearly in that the Gods of Golf must have been surprised it did not fall. Price, desperate to clinch a play-off overcooked his putt and missed the return. What a thrilling match, cut and thrust to the very end and the duelling long irons stay in my memory as a thing from bygone days.
Cheers Colin
Colin I didn’t see it but there’s a really good highlights Video of it. The bad weather meant that they played as a 3 ball and Faldo was a spectator to all this.
“Unusually for the last round of a major championship, they went out in threeballs. Ballesteros, Price and Faldo were the last group out. It was no shock to see that Seve was again dressed in navy and white: his Open lucky colours. Price bogeyed the 2nd and Seve was still a shot behind him playing the 7th. There Nick hit a wonderful 2-iron second shot to within four feet of the pin. From the fairway you can’t see the bottom of the flag on this hole, but the roars of the crowd told Seve that Price was close. He only had a 5-iron in, which he hit to six feet. He holed his putt for an eagle; so did Price. Faldo three-putted and was on his way out of contention.
Seve caught Price with a 20-foot birdie on the 8th. After pars at the 9th, both made birdies at the 10th, Nicky from four feet and Seve from 20. Against a par of 5-4-3-4, Seve had just had four straight threes. On the par-five 11th, another birdie gained him the lead at last, an advantage he promptly squandered after a poor tee shot at he 12th.
Price, who had frittered the Open away in 1982 and had yet to win a major championship at this point, was far from finished. His second shot to the 13th almost went in for an eagle two. Seve knew he could not afford to let Price get ahead again. He matched the birdie by holing from 18 feet. As if joined at the hip, they both bogeyed the 14th and parred the 15th.
And so on to the 16th, where Seve, the ‘car-park’ champion, had so dramatically sealed the title nine years previously. This time it was a 1-iron into the fairway (there’s maturity and experience for you) and a 9-iron, from 135 yards, that finished three inches from the hole. That birdie gave him the lead again, and for good. Later, Seve couldn’t resist saying: “It’s a pity that I didn’t find any cars on the 16th today. Perhaps next time the R&A should park them on the fairway.”
There was one more anxious moment to overcome, as his drive on the last flirted with the right-hand traps. It finished in wispy rough from where – in his keenness not to go into one of the deep bunkers that protect the last green (he was only in four sand traps all weeks, as opposed to 15 in 1979) – he hit a 6-iron just over the left-hand side of the green.
This was deliberate. Before going out to play, he had looked out over the 18th green and observed that if he required a four to win, the safe play was to go left. How his gorgeous 9- iron chip shot from there didn’t go in for a three remains one of golf’s enduring mysteries.
Ian Wright began to celebrate. Seve told him to cut it out. “Just a minute,” he said. “Nick still has to putt. I’ve seen things happen before.”Such as what Bob Tway and Larry Mize had both recently done with outrageous shots to deny Greg Norman two major championships. If Price could hole his 30-foot putt for a birdie, there would be a playoff.
Read more at
http://www.golftoday.co.uk/golf_international_mag/features/seve_ballesteros_lytham.html#r128r3FCwoihxqtB.99”