A memorable day for golfing fans as Seve came to region
The Seve Trophy brought some of Europe’s top golfers to the North East in 2005. Gordon Arnott, who was part of the team that made the event happen, remembers when one of the all-time greats came to Wynyard.
SEVERIANO Ballesteros is generally regarded as one of golf ’s all-time greats, his three Open wins and thrilling performances in the Ryder Cup, winning him fans around the world.
In the twilight of his career, and in what would prove to be the final years of his life, Seve made the surprise decision to stop off in North East England and bring his star spangled show to town – the Wynyard Club golf course on the edge of Teesside, to be exact.
Ignoring the obvious allure of courses and regions steeped in golf history, he chose the relative golfing backwater as the home for his eponymous trophy.
The Seve Trophy was the Ryder Cup’s unofficial ‘little brother.’ It brought together the cream of Europe’s golfers in a four-day competition based on the Ryder Cup format, with Great Britain and Ireland taking on Continental Europe.
After previously holding the event in Sunningdale, Druid’s Glen in Ireland and Spain, it came to North East thanks to the economic firepower of regional development agency One North East and an unmatched passion for sport.
One North East made early contact after hearing the event was looking for a home for its next edition.
The ambitious Wynyard Club was vocal about its desire to stage what would be by far the region’s biggest ever golf tournament.
Seve and his Amen Corner team, led by his nephew Ivan Ballesteros, ran the rule over the Teesside course.
A meeting hosted by One North East and club officials over Pintxos and more traditional local fare in the clubhouse helped seal the deal after Ivan played the Wellington Course and gave it his stamp of approval.
One North East would be the event’s main sponsor, with its acclaimed ‘Passionate People, Passionate Places’ tourism branding for North East England being promoted across national media as part of the build up to and during the event.
Seve and his team loved hearing about the North East’s passion for sport – its Premier League clubs, Euro ’96 hosting success, tales going back as far as Ayresome Park staging the epic North Korea v. Italy World Cup clash in 1966.
But was the North East ready to welcome Seve, Colin Montgomerie, Jose Maria Olazabal and 22 of the world’s greatest golfers with all the paraphernalia that entails?
No, not really, but as Richard Branson famously said: ‘If someone offers you an opportunity and you’re not sure you can do it, accept it and learn to do it later.’
A few eyebrows were raised about the venue and whether the course and facilities were up to the standards expected by pampered tour professionals.
And what about the North East weather in late September when the event would tee off?
Would it lash down for a week and prove a washout? Some things are beyond control, but others aren’t.
A £750,000 investment by The Wynyard Club extended the clubhouse – work completed courtesy of a Trojan-like effort by Stockton Borough Council’s trades team ensuring the players would feel right at home. Lengthening the Wellington Course, adding new bunkering and preparing the greens to European Tour lightning fast standards took place over a year.
The success of the Seve Trophy from the North East’s perspective hinged on Seve, his charisma guaranteeing crowds and media coverage.
I found him a fiery, complex man struggling to accept his days at the
pinnacle of the game were gone and never to return.
But he was hugely charismatic with it – his effect on people incredible to witness.
On my first encounter with him, he told me to stop talking, struggling to understand my nervous Northumbrian twang, and asking if I was from Scotland. I didn’t disagree, incapable of meaningful conversation.
‘Caddying’ for him for three holes in a report for Sky Sports, I merely handed him the clubs he wanted and watched with a sense of melancholy as he recreated his famous fistpunching reaction to holing the winning putt on the final hole at St Andrew’s in the 1984 Open.
Seve liked what he saw at Wynyard: “I’m very happy that I’ve been able to see the course – it is a fantastic place and it was good to choose a place like this,” he told reporters.
“It is more a combination between links golf on the back nine and parkland on the front nine and it reminds me very much of my course back home.
“I hope the North East public will come to the event.
“They will see some great golf and I’m looking forward to watching Jose Maria play against Monty – I might even caddy for Jose Maria!”
Seve cut a lean, trim figure for the 2005 event.
On a strict training regime of daily cycling and swimming, he was in preparation for a return to play the Open the next year, convinced – despite media incredulity at the packed news conference – that he could recapture his former glories.
He was non-playing host at The Wynyard Club, his troublesome back still causing him problems, prompting him to hand over the Continental Europe captaincy to Olazabal with Montgomerie leading Great Britain and Ireland’s charge.
Seve was the man about Teesside in the run up to the event – hosting a golf clinic at Wynyard for youngsters, guest of honour at a dinner at Ormesby Hall and unveiled to Middlesbrough fans at half-time on match day at the Riverside Stadium.
Over the four days of the event, 40,000 fans pack the course to follow the stars.
On the final day, crowds 10 deep lined the first fairway. The pros spoke about how it had a Ryder Cup feel and revelled in the atmosphere.
TV ratings on Sky Sports were great, executives loving the fact it outstripped viewers tuning in for the prestigious President’s Cup being played in the States.
And the local economy cashed in to the tune of a seven-figure sum boost generated by visitor spend from the event.
Even the weather held fair, and on the course Great Britain and Ireland landed the spoils with a five-point win.
Behind the scenes there was a collective sigh of relief from the North East team deprived of sleep and with signs of premature ageing brought about by a year’s worry and anticipation.
But the North East’s unbridled love of sport had played out once again.
There was talk of the Seve Trophy making The Wynyard Club its spiritual home, to return in 2007, but they did not pan out.
Instead it went to Ireland, watched by underwhelming crowds, and then on to France for three more outings.
The last event – with Seve’s name watered down by a sponsor’s branding in the title – took place in 2013 and there are no signs of it returning.
While The Wynyard Club blazed the trail for big name top flight golf in the North East, it’s Close House, just outside Newcastle, which has taken up the reins, hosting the successful British Masters and bringing top level gold back to the North East.
For Seve, there was to be no renaissance.
A brain tumour diagnosed in 2008 cruelly cut short his life three years later, aged just 54.
His genius lives on, his swashbuckling triumphs and gifted shotmaking reaching a new generation in a digitally connected age.
Teesside and Seve were good for each other: right time, right place.