Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
The golfing world is in mourning with the passing of Severiano Ballesteros who slipped away in the early hours of Saturday morning in his home town of Pedrena after a long battle with cancer.
At the age of just 54, this charismatic and caring man has been taken away long before his time, but the legacy he leaves will guide us through the future. Known the world over simply as 'Seve,' you didn't have to be a golf fan to recognise his contribution to the world of sport.
As a player he was dashing and slightly reckless. He possessed the fighting qualities of an alley-cat, the imagination of an artist and the daring of a matador.
When I was a young boy learning how to play this wonderfully frustrating game in the late 80s and early 90s, during the 'pre-Tiger era', Seve was every young player's hero.
One of my earliest golfing memories was dropping a few balls by the chipping green at my local club and trying to get the ball up and down like the great man did so often. He was a genius, especially around the greens. We all wanted to play like him; dreaming of standing on the 18th green at St Andrews with a 20 footer for the Open and celebrate with a Seve fist pump when it dropped into the cup.
Ballesteros was the greatest golfer the continent of Europe has ever produced. Others - Faldo, for example - won more majors, but none impacted on the sport like the Spaniard did: not just an audacious shotmaker and short game genius, but a man who made the game globally significant.
For the fans there has been no other like him. What was the biggest difference between Seve and Tiger? We admire Tiger, we loved Seve.
He had 87 victories including five Major championships throughout a glittering career but he will be remembered for many things. One of them is reviving a flagging Ryder Cup. Seve was instrumental in the change from Great Britain and Ireland to join forces with Europe. He became the modern Mr Ryder Cup and the images of him and his great friend Jose Maria Olazabal celebrating Europe's first win on American soil are forever etched in our memories.
Before him it was an embarrassing mis-match, then it became a thrilling contest, now it is the third most watched sporting event on the globe. Seve changed that.
Don't overlook the state that European golf was in before his emergence. Apart from Tony Jacklin the concept of a decent European golfer didn't really exist in the post-war era. The players rarely ventured to America and during the early days it was touch and go as to whether the European Tour would survive.
Seve not only went to America, he paved the way for the rest to follow. His victory at Augusta in 1980, the first by a European player, lit the blue touch paper and made the others believe that they could do it too.
Back then the European Tour players travelled by and slept in small camper vans; now they fly in private aeroplanes and stay at 7-star hotels. Seve changed that.
He always played without fear, taking on the impossible with the thought that if it didn't come off there was always another day.
Sadly for Seve there are no more days left, but the legacy he leaves is heart-warming; it's one of golden memories and intoxicating images, like, 'that' celebration on the last green at St Andrews in 1984.
There have been some great champions in Europe and there will be many more in the years ahead, but the greatest champion of them all is Severiano Ballesteros.
