A hero among men
Michael Weston sets renowned photographer David Cannon the unenviable task of choosing his ten all-time favourite Seve photos
Seve Ballesteros left a lasting impression on everyone who watched him. It wasn’t just because of the way he played and the shots he took on. He was a great champion, yes, a trailblazer, pioneer, genius, artist, all of those things – but he also had charisma. People loved him. He was, as acclaimed photographer David Cannon says, simply a “hero”. For Cannon, it’s hard to quantify how much the great man shaped his own professional career. He admits that one particular shot of the winning putt at St Andrews in 1984 “established him in the golfing market”. But the time spent with Seve away from tournaments had the greatest impact on him. It’s these memories he treasures most.
The pair met by pure chance. Cannon was a scratch golfer at The Leicestershire Golf Club in 1976 and was drawn to play with Seve in a pro-am. He remembers the day as if it were yesterday.
“He hit it to places I’ve never seen on that golf course. The strike was amazing,” Cannon recalls, with a smile as wide as one of Seve’s. “You could tell he had something
The Open Hoylake, 2006
“This was Seve’s last Open. I think the only reason he played was because Javier, his son, persuaded him to. What an amazing experience to caddie for your father in The Open. I look at this picture and think, ‘Hugo Boss, that hat!’ One of the great things about Seve was his hair and his eyes. This was probably the last time I saw him playing, sadly.”
World Match Play Wentworth, 1985
“I remember these World Match Plays fondly, with the big crowds and lovely autumn light. Seve had his fair share of success here. On this occasion, he’d put his tee-shot on the par-3 5th in the bunker. It’s difficult to get nicely framed bunker shots with the player on one side and the ball up on the other. I’m always very keen to get as much out of focus as possible on backgrounds so you really isolate the subject. There’s no hat. Just look at the eyes.”
“I’m keen to get the background out of focus so you really isolate the subject”
Johnnie Walker World Golf Championship Jamaica, 1991
“IMG came up with this end-of-season ‘jolly’ and most of the top 24 players in the world played at Tryall Golf Club in Jamaica that first year in 1991. As you can see here, the rough on the course
The Ryder Cup Kiawah Island, 1991
“The greatest partnership in Ryder Cup history. I was lucky to get Ollie jumping on his shoulders to see where the ball had gone because the Americans were playing around the same moment. He did it once and it was a bit messy because a caddie was standing right behind; then he did it again and I got this lovely clean background.” was pretty serious. This was Seve on the 1st hole and I remember thinking, ‘I’ve got this picture, that’s enough of Seve for the day!’ That was the thing about Seve – going out to photograph him was unrivalled.”
“Every day you went out with Seve, you knew you had a chance of getting a great picture”
“What can I say? The final putt to win an Open. You have to be lucky”
European Masters Crans-sur-sierre, 1993
“Seve’s great escape. He’s six feet from a concrete wall and everyone thinks he’s going to chip out. He gets on his knees, snorting, kicking the ground, pointing to a gap. Billy Foster, his caddie, reckoned it was the size of a dinner plate. I was waiting for it to hit the wall and come towards me, but then there was this big roar. One of the most incredible shots I’ve ever seen. He then chipped in for birdie!”
The Open St Andrews, 1984
“What can I say? The final putt to win The Open. You have to be lucky in this game. I had about six seconds of ammunition in my camera and this fist pump was near the end. It was amazing how long it seemed to take to roll into the hole. It was missing, it just hovered over the edge... then it went in. This navy jumper is iconic, so is the Slazenger panther logo.” different. Sure enough, two months later when he nearly won The Open at Birkdale, the world knew about him in a big way.”
Over the last 40 years, Cannon has documented some of sport’s greatest moments through the lens of his camera. World Cups, Olympic Games, he’s shot the lot. But even though he can put his initials alongside ‘that’ Carl Lewis running shot from the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, nothing ever quite beat shooting golf’s best-loved star.
Cannon followed Seve from the moment he burst on to the scene. Although he worked for a football agency, the pull of watching him play in the World Match Play at Wentworth all those years ago was too great – he had to be there, even if it meant skipping work on a Friday to “blag” his way in.
It wasn’t until 1983 that Cannon first saw Seve at The Open at Royal Birkdale. A year later, he captured what would become one of golf’s most iconic pictures – Seve’s fistpump celebration after his final putt to win the Claret Jug at St Andrews. “For me, this is where it started,” Cannon says. “Boy, from that moment onwards he was electric to photograph. Every day you went out with Seve you knew you had a chance of getting a great picture.”
Over the next two decades, Cannon had a front-row seat for Seve’s greatest moments: the Ryder Cups, World Match Plays, Masters, Opens. While he could be a “brute” to tie down at tournaments – don’t mention the shoot for the Sunderland waterproof company – he was wonderfully accommodating, too, as he was on an instruction shoot at his home in Pedrena, which Cannon describes as the “most memorable day of my life in golf photography”.