More than 25 Europeans will line up in the 2012 Masters. Every one of them owes a big debt of gratitude to Seve. When the Spaniard made his debut at Augusta in 1977 he was one of only three – Christy O’Connor Jr and Peter Oosterhuis were the others – and none of our stars had slipped into a Green Jacket. 

Within three years, thanks to Seve, all that had changed and, in the next two decades, a European began the Major season with a victory on an incredible 11 occasions. The deadlock had well and truly been broken.

The Spaniard was one of four golfing brothers and was not even the first family member to play in at Augusta, his uncle Ramon Sota playing in four consecutive Masters from 1964 and finishing 6th in ‘66. It took his nephew a little longer to get to grips with the former indigo plantation.

Former Ryder Cup captain Bernard Gallacher’s first experience of Ballesteros came at the 1974 French Open. The Scot was already a Ryder Cup player, Seve a 16-year-old just a few months into a professional career.

“His brother Manuel came up to me and said 'you're playing with my younger brother today, he is only 16, could you look out for him?'. So that's when I first met Seve. He had a lot of rough edges at 16, he had some potential but I didn't think he would become the world beater that he became.

“We got our first inkling when he almost won the Open at Royal Birkdale when he was 19 and he propelled himself to the forefront of European golf. 

“Up until then he was a Spanish golfer who was struggling to make cuts but then we realised he was something special. He ran the best player in the world, Johnny Miller, close. Then he won the Open and the Masters and he won them in style.”

At the time Seve began at Augusta, the inclusion of so many ‘foreigners’ was controversial, the suggestion being they weakened the field and took up the place of an American who had a chance of winning.

In 1980 Seve was the joint leader after an opening 66, led by four after day two and was 10 clear going into the back nine on Sunday. At this point he was 16 under, having played the front nine for the week in three under, and just one short of Ray Floyd and Jack Nicklaus’s 72-hole best.

But then in the pines and ponds of Amen Corner seven shots were lost to his playing partner Jack Newton – three putts on 10, a Newton birdie on 11 and then the Open champion found Rae’s Creek at the 12th (Tom Weiskopf hit five balls in there on the first day) to coincide with another Newton birdie.

At the 13th the water was again found, resulting in a third straight Newton birdie and a Seve bogey – the lead was now three. 

The key came at the 15th when, after a 300-yard drive, the Spaniard found the heart of the green with a 4 iron, ironically the same shot and club that let him down six years later. 

At the time Ballesteros became the youngest Masters champion and joined only three other golfers in history to have won two or more Majors by the age of 23. Their names are Francis Ouimet, Bobby Jones and Jack Nicklaus.

“The Americans didn't like it as he didn't play on their tour, he played on the European Tour and it lifted everybody in Europe,” says Gallacher. “It gave our tour added status and it led the way for Faldo, Lyle, Langer, Woosnam and Olazabal to win Green Jackets.

“I think they are thankful for him doing that, for giving them the confidence, and leading the way. Seve wanted to be a world golfer, he even had a run-in with the European Tour.

“He was struggling to commit to tours, he wanted to play in Japan, in South Africa and around the world. He wanted to play in America but not in the 16 events that the membership required.

“That made it difficult for him to prepare properly for the Majors as he wanted to play in two or three events leading up to a big one and he couldn't do that. He did have this conflict with the American tour and especially their commissioner Deane Beman.”

In 1982 Seve was one shot outside a play-off, won by Craig Stadler, the following year he added a second Masters crown. This time he was never ahead but finished each round just one adrift and, on a Monday finish, started birdie-eagle-par-birdie, the last of which came courtesy of a 2 iron through the wind to two feet. 

The leaders, Stadler and Floyd, two of golf’s gutsiest characters, were stunned. Seve closed the day with a chip-in at 18, albeit for par, to close out a second four-shot win.

He said afterwards: “The first four holes were the best I ever played in my life. If people say I’m lucky after that then I want to be a lucky golfer for many years.”

We all marvel these days at Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson’s incredible records at Augusta, but Seve was every bit as good. During the 80s, as well as two victories, there were also five top 5s which included two heartbreaking near misses. And, bizarrely, by the age of 26 Seve had won the last of his Green Jackets.

1986 was the toughest for Seve to take. Nicklaus, the last of his 17 Majors won six years previously, took on the next generation. And won. 

Home in 30 shots, thanks to an oversized MacGregor Response ZT putter, the 46-year-old won a sixth Jacket. But this one Seve lost. Eagles at eight and 13 had left the Spaniard in control but then a mis-hit 4 iron barely made it halfway across the pond at the 15th. 

“That hurt him a lot, I talked to Seve about that,” says Gallacher. “His brother was caddying at the time and many of us thought Vicente was too close to him in a big event like that. 

“Maybe that was a mistake but he said he was caught between a four and a five and he eased off it after a perfect drive. It was maybe a turning point and maybe got him thinking about his technique, and trying to perfect it too much, but he had a great method.

“Seve's legacy in some circles was that he was wild off the tee and that he chipped and putted his way round the course. Seve was a marvellously long straight driver of the ball and that's why he did so well at Augusta, and why he did so well at Wentworth when he won five World Match Plays and three Opens. He only became erratic later on and it was very sudden.”

The following year there was further agony when Seve faced the lengthy walk back up the 10th fairway after three-putting to leave Greg Norman and Larry Mize to battle it out in a play-off. The only small consolation was he didn’t have to stomach being on the end of the American’s chip-in birdie.

By now Langer also owned a Green Jacket and, following Mize’s bolt from the blue, Lyle, Faldo and Woosnam captured the next four as Seve continued to contend but never quite threaten.

In the past couple of years our sightings of the genius from Santander have been few and far between as he continues to recover from surgery in 2008 to remove a malignant tumour from his brain.

Any interview tends to end with everyone around him quickly reduced to gibbering wrecks. Everybody adored Seve. We always did and we always will. In his playing days he had an effect on millions that nobody else came close to. It remains the case today.

Gallacher was his Ryder Cup captain three times, and even a man of his standing speaks in reverence about Seve.  

“Seve really tore down barriers, he was really European golf to be honest. He was carrying our hopes and the hopes for Spain. There are not enough superlatives for what Seve did for the tour.

“Bernhard Langer missed that putt at Kiawah and when I went into the dressing room he was crying. Now Bernhard has a very strong mind but when he looked up he said ‘I was OK but then looked over and saw Seve crying and that really got me going’.”