Some of the greats of European golf joined family, friends and locals for the funeral of Seve Ballesteros.
Euro Ryder Cup greats pay respect at Seve Ballesteros' funeral
Some of the greats of European golf joined family, friends and locals for the funeral of Seve Ballesteros in the small fishing village of Pedrena on Wednesday.
The Spaniard, who died of brain cancer, aged 54, on Saturday, was a trailblazer for European golf and some of those he inspired were at the 400-capacity church of San Pedro de Pedrena to pay their respects.
They included Ballesteros' great friend and Ryder Cup partner Jose Maria Olazabal and his fellow Ryder Cup players and captains Colin Montgomerie, Nick Faldo and Sam Torrance.
Ballesteros' oldest son, Javier, carried the urn holding the Spanish golf great's ashes at the front of the procession. It also featured several young boys and girls wearing a replica of the navy blue outfit that became so synonymous with Ballesteros' Open triumphs. Each held a 3-iron, the club Seve first used as a child.
Wednesday's service ended with the ashes of Ballesteros being placed underneath a magnolia tree in the family garden.
Villagers in Pedrena left gifts outside the Ballesteros family home including written notes, candles, golf shoes and clubs.
"His roots were here in Pedrena, he never forgot that," said Asuncion Sota, a cousin of Ballesteros. "Seve may have passed but his soul lives on here forever."
Every golf club in Spain had a minute's silence and at the Iberdrola Open in Majorca, to where Montgomerie and Olazabal were travelling after the funeral, black ribbons were placed on every flag for Wednesday's pro-am and a service was held in the chapel alongside the course.
Meanwhile, Montgomerie and Faldo have added their names to the campaign to have the image of Ballesteros on the logo of the European Tour - currently a silhouette of Harry Vardon, Open champion a record six times.
"I think you will find it does change and let's hope it is sooner rather than later," said Montgomerie. "I would vote for that immediately.
"When you talk about the European Tour you talk about Seve and I think its only right he should appear on our logo."
Montgomerie described the funeral service as "very sad and moving, but after this mournful day we have to start to celebrate his life".
Faldo, who flew from America to London in time to join a private jet to Spain organised by the European Tour, added: "I think they (the Tour) would have a very difficult time not changing the logo.
"From day one I said to George (Tour executive director George O'Grady) 'Come on - we are not 110-year-old golfers'.
"There will never be another Seve. He had everything - the good looks, the charisma, the smile, the walk and the swash-buckling golf game.
"We shared lots of battles and it's tragic. We would have been mates and we've lost out on that. We always had mutual respect, but we never realised the level of feelings that we had for each other."
