British Open: Ranking the 25 most dominant performances of all time
By Bill Felber
22. Seve Ballesteros, 1979, -2.82
This was the tournament that established Ballesteros’s place on the world stage.
Three years removed from a stunning runner-up finish as a 19-year-old, Ballesteros beat Jack Nicklaus, of all people, in a statement outcome if ever there was one.
The victory, at Royal Lytham and St. Annes, made him the first player from mainland Europe to win a major championship in nearly three-quarters of a century. Coming at age 22, it also made him, the youngest British Open titleist since the 1890s.
Ballesteros played a power game that occasionally got him in trouble, but balanced it with a deft short game touch. The combination was never more famously in evidence than on the 16th hole Sunday, where Ballesteros drove into a parking area. Benefitting from a free drop, he pitched onto the green and dropped a 20-foot putt for a birdie three.
It was a typical approach by Ballesteros, who drove into the rough nine times during that final round. For the tournament, he was 14 of 15 in getting up and down from greenside bunkers.
When co-runner-up Ben Crenshaw double-bogeyed the 18th hole Sunday, the tournament belonged to Ballesteros.
But he actually seized command of it on Friday with a sensational round of 65 that featured birdies on four of the final five holes.