Kirsty Gallacher and Rob Lee recall Seve Ballesteros - the friend, football fanatic and arm-wrestler...
Seve lit the place up wherever he went, says Lee
Memories of Seve Ballesteros flooded in following the death of the Spanish golfing great.
Ballesteros passed away aged 54 due to respiratory failure, ending a long battle after he was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2008.
skysports.com columnist Rob Lee, Sky Sports commentator Wayne Riley and Sky Sports News HD presenter Kirsty Gallacher were among those to share their recollections of Ballesteros the competitor, friend, football fanatic and arm-wrestler...
"This is the day that we've all been dreading," said Lee. "I'm stunned, even though the illness that he had was so terrible, so awful that I don't think any of us thought he would beat it.
"I just spoke to Mark Roe and he said 'do you remember, Rob, when we were in a bar arm-wrestling and Seve came across and he wanted a chunk of it?'
"He sat down and arm-wrestled the pair of us because he couldn't stand that a competition was going on and he wasn't in some way involved in it - such was his sense of fun and competition. He just loved a challenge.
Intensity
"Then there was the Spanish Open in Valencia in 1984; for some reason in those days you couldn't always get home on a Sunday night. Quite often you had to stay in a hotel and travel home on Monday morning.
"That week was no different and we all knew that we were staying behind if we made the cut, so we all arranged a football match - a Seve XI against a Bernhard Langer XI.
"You can't really imagine that happening these days with the best players in the world. Langer had just won the tournament and then we had the match.
"Valencia Football Club supplied the home kits, the away kits a UEFA Cup referee; 2,000 turned up to watch and every deal ball situation that the Spaniards got, Seve had to have it.
"The funny bit was he wasn't brilliant at football but his sense of competition and the intensity of competing against someone else was there for all to see.
"He was a great guy; wherever he went he lit the place up. He was just extraordinary."
Champion
Riley, currently commentating at the Spanish Open where flags are flying at half mast in Ballesteros' honour, recalled: "As a young child of 12 years of age I had a picture of the great man up on my cupboard; he was standing there, hitting sand irons.
"And then I watched the great Open Championship of 1979 at Royal Lytham where he hit it in car parks and all over the place.
"I first met Seve in 1985 but in 1987 I played with him in the final two rounds of the Irish Open and he absolutely smashed me about.
"He was an absolutely unbelievable inspirational golfer. In 1988 I played the Spanish Open at his home course up there in Pedrena and I shot 61.
"He was up there on the balcony and as I walked past I said 'hey Seve, tough course your home course'. He looked at me with a big smile and I walked off. I never let him forget it.
"What we have here is a great man. He has been an inspirational character for world golf and we should celebrate his life. He was a wonderful, wonderful man and a great champion."
Cheeky
Meanwhile Gallacher,
whose father Bernard led the tributes to Ballesteros, provided an insight into what it was like growing up on the golfing circuit around the Spanish great.
"He was a very kind man - quite cheeky and playful; he was fun to be with and a real family man," said Kirsty. "He was just good fun to be with.
"He was an awesome character in the literal sense of the word. He was really, really charismatic. When he walked into a room everyone looked at him. That wasn't just about him being a great golfer, he also had a presence.
"I have so many memories of time spent with Seve and his family. One particular memory that I will cherish and is quite apt for the moment is that he was a big Barcelona fan.
"During the PGA at Wentworth, where we lived, he had just finished his round and he came over to watch Barcelona play in what was then the European Cup and he was so passionate and excited and we all sat with him and it was amazing.
"Even knowing him as a family friend, part of me looked and went 'wow - Seve Ballesteros is sitting watching the football in this room'."
