Our thoughts are with you Seve

Like Arnie, Jack and Tiger, all you have to say is 'Seve', and people know who you are talking about.

I'm sure I wasn't alone in my sadness last week when I found out that the great man had collapsed and briefly lost consciousness at Madrid Airport. After being kept in for further tests, Seve told the world's press that a brain tumour had been detected and that he was due to have a biopsy. Thereafter doctors would decide on a course of treatment.

He added: "Throughout my entire career I have been one of the best at overcoming obstacles on the golf course, and now I want to be the best at facing the most difficult game of my life."

Letters of support have been arriving by the sackful from family, friends, fans and fellow professionals alike, such is the respect he commands.

I find it hard to imagine Severiano Ballesteros sitting in a Madrid hospital. The image doesn't gel with the one we have of Seve in his halcyon days.

It bears no resemblance to the most effervescent, charismatic golfer the game has ever seen. It's ironic that news of Seve's health problems came in the same week that the European Tour announced its five-year, $140 million deal with the Dubai-backed Leisurecorp Group.

It's hard to imagine that deal ever taking place had Seve not come along in the mid-1970s and made golf attractive to sponsors - his charisma, sex appeal and movie star good looks had companies piling into the European Tour. Golf was nothing in Spain, but this one man, who famously used to practice with a 3 iron on the beach (because it was the only club he had), soon changed all that!

Seve burst onto the international golf scene in 1976 when he chased Johnny Miller at the Open Championship, at Royal Birkdale. Ultimately, he would finish second that week, but for millions of fans worldwide, a new superstar had been born.

In 1979, he won the Open Championship for the first time after making a birdie from the car park! Ben Crenshaw, the famous American major champion, once said of Seve: "He plays shots I don't even see in my dreams."

He became an idol to millions of youngsters with ambitions of playing professional golf including the likes of Lee Westwood, Paul Casey and Darren Clarke.

During his glorious playing career, Seve won 87 titles, including five major championships; three Opens and two US Masters. His influence on golf as we know it today is immeasurable. The European Tour was struggling to compete with the money on offer in America until Seve came along but he changed it from A to Z.

His influence on the European game is not only seen in the huge prize funds today's players are competing for. This is obvious also if you look at the Ryder Cup. He turned this formerly one-sided exhibition match into the contest it is today. He was the one who instilled a winning belief in the players.

Seve was a member of the 1983 European team that lost by a point to the US. That match gave him the belief that Europe's days as underdogs were over.

Seve won five major titles during his career, but the Ryder Cup became his biannual major. He was at the heart of every success, winning 20 points from 37 matches, his Ryder Cup career concluding with his successful captaincy at Valderrama in his home country, Spain, in 1997. A fitting end to a wonderful Ryder Cup career no doubt.

The European Tour missed a trick in my opinion earlier this year when they unveiled a new logo. The player on that logo is six-time Open winner Harry Vardon. No disrespect to Vardon, he was a great champion, but a man in a flat cap is hardly the modern image needed for the 21st century. Severiano Ballesteros should be the man on that logo. He should be on it as thanks for doing the same thing for European golf as Arnold Palmer did for American golf.

The fist pumping image of Seve celebrating his 1984 Open Championship win at St Andrews - the greatest victory celebration in major championship history - would be a fitting tribute for all he has done for the game.

However, that's a side issue. For now let's all keep our fingers crossed that Seve's condition is curable and we will see him back on a golf course (whatever part of the course it may be), where he belongs in the not too distant future. Our thoughts are with Seve and his family.