THE MASTER MANIPULATOR

JP Seve was the most talented player I’ve ever seen. He was an artist and he could play shots other players could only dream about. My favourite and most famous ruling involving him was on the 18th at Valderrama in the 1994 Volvo Masters. He’d hit his ball under the tree, into an area that may or may not have been caused by a burrowing animal. Seve felt the hole had been made by an animal. One, that was questionable. And two, I couldn’t find any evidence. He had to prove his case.

Anyway, there was a small hole within the big hole. When I went to stick my finger in the small hole to see what was down there, Seve put his hand on my shoulder and said, “Be careful, it might bite.” That was inspired of course. I almost started to chuckle. But that was Seve all over; trying to get what he felt he was due and trying to sway me. He didn’t, of course. He could be intimidating, but I had to put that aside.

Seve once told me he could play a shot in such a way that his stance would be affected by an obstruction. So I told him to demonstrate, thinking there was no way he could persuade me. He had one foot in a ditch, the other above the ditch. Then he turned the club round and swung left-handed. After a couple of practice swings, I was convinced. He could have hit it like that. No other player would have thought of it. But I knew he was capable of it. He was a genius. So he got his drop.

Then there was a shot he hit at Wentworth that hit a tree root, shot up in the air and lodged in a tree. We could see the ball, but Seve had to identify it was his. I gave him my binoculars. He said it washis ball; he could see the mark on it. So now he had to drop underneath where the ball was. Which he did. But as he went to the bag to get his club, the original ball fell out of the tree! He wanted to play it, of course. But he couldn’t. He accepted the decision, but it was so funny the way he sighed and pleaded his case. There will never be anyone like Seve again. Tiger is great, but Seve was breathtaking.