Golf Veteran Accuses PGA Tour of Mistreating Jon Rahm’s Idol Despite His Legacy: ‘Never Got the Respect’

Charisma. Fire. Brilliance. Few golfers embodied those qualities like Seve Ballesteros, the Spanish superstar who electrified the sport in the late 20th century. To European fans, he wasn’t just a golfer but a champion who dragged the Ryder Cup from an American procession into a genuine contest. He has long been the idol of many, including Jon Rahm, who dedicated his 2023 Masters win to Seve, saying, “He was up there helping and help he did.” But behind these highlights and Ryder Cup heroics lies a harsher truth. There was a time when Seve was often dismissed, disrespected, and misunderstood.

Jose Maria Olazabal, one of Ballesteros’s friends and Ryder Cup partner, recalled those days on a Golf Channel video. “He didn’t have it easy when he started playing on tour. He was not welcome in those days.”

Seve’s Ryder Cup story began in 1979, when the competition finally expanded beyond Great Britain & Ireland to include continental Europe. Just 22 years old, Ballesteros joined the team in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. Expectations were high, but the Americans streamrolled the Europeans (17 to 11), and Seve himself lost most of his matches. Writer Shane Ryan, in the same video, recalls the reality: “It was an utter disaster.”

But Seve’s troubles weren’t just limited to the course. Off it, he clashed with the European Tour over appearance fees. Visiting American stars were paid handsomely to show up (reportedly around £50,000 per event), while Ballesteros — already a two-time major champion — was denied the same treatment. He refused to play under such terms and hence quit the European team.

As a result, he did not play enough events to qualify for the 1981 Ryder Cup. The only chance for him to get into the event was through the captain’s pick, but then European captain John Jacobs, who in fact wanted him, was overhauled. “They made the decision to leave this bright shining star off the team, which made him bitter. Seve Ballesteros’s bitter, kind of the attitude of ‘Why even bother playing the Ryder Cup ever again?‘” Ryan shares. His exclusion was later described as a form of “sporting self-mutilation” by contemporaries, given how vital he was to the team’s success. As expected, the US won that Ryder Cup, defeating Europe with a dominant final score of 18.5 to 9.5

This prompted Europe to redeem its mistake. Two years later, Tony Jacklin took the reins of European Ryder Cup captaincy. “I quickly made an appointment to meet with Seve, and we actually sat down at the Prince of Wales Hotel and had breakfast,” he remembers. Ballesteros, pumped with the last two years of pain and anger, vented it all to Jacklin, who then offered him to come back to the team. “I can’t do it if you don’t come on board.” Seve finally agreed. “And in the end, he said, ‘Okay, I help you.‘ Although Europe lost that 1983 Cup (14.5 to 13.5), the tournament is still remembered for Ballesteros’s miraculous shot on the 18th hole.

Yet, the respect he looked for never reached him full-fledged. Ballesteros’s clashes with the PGA Tour only deepened the sense that European players were treated as outsiders. In 1986, despite being a global star and multiple major champion, he was suspended for an entire season after failing to meet the rigid 15-tournament requirement. The rule forced players into schedules that ignored their global commitments. Tired of the inflexibility and lack of respect, Ballesteros eventually gave up on rejoining the PGA Tour altogether.

He had other reasons, too. His limited presence in the US made him an easy target of the media. “I always think Seve went to America and never got the respect that he thought he might have deserved. Some press guys called him Steve instead of Seve,” shared Billy Foster, who caddied for Ballesteros in the 1991 Ryder Cup.

Regardless, the respect he looked for everywhere, he finally got at home. Players who came after him, like Jon Rahm or the ones who played alongside him, like Olazabal, often credit Ballesteros for changing the golf scene in Europe.

How Seve Ballesteros’s spirit still guides others

For Jon Rahm, Seve Ballesteros isn’t just an idol, but the reason why he picked up a golf club in the first place. Rahm has often said, “Seve means everything to me,” considering him the indisputable benchmark in Spanish golf. Watching Ballesteros captain Europe to Ryder Cup glory at Valderrama in 1997 lit a spark in him. “I am here because of that alone,” Rahm once admitted, tracing his entire career back to that one moment. He has often been compared with his idol, at times called his direct successor. But for Rahm, he can never match that talent. “I’m never going to be Seve. Seve was so unique, so special.”

This same sentiment is echoed by Jose Maria Olazabal, who calls Ballesteros “the very essence of European golf.” When Olazabal captained Europe at the 2012 Ryder Cup, he draped Seve’s spirit over his players, placing images of him on their sleeves and bags. A constant reminder of “never give up.”

Seve Ballesteros eventually was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1999, after a total of 50 European Tour (now DP World Tour) titles. For both Rahm and Olazabal, Ballesteros remains more than a memory. He is a compass, the standard by which Spanish and European golf continues to define itself.