Rory McIlroy walked into Dubai with a season already packed with career-defining highs. He won the 2025 Masters by edging past Justin Rose in the playoff to complete his career Grand Slam. Although he didn’t win his 5th DP World Tour Championship, he made his mark by winning his 7th Race to Dubai title.

With this win, he surpassed Severiano Ballesteros, who has 6 European Order of Merit titles. While this win means a lot to the 2025 Masters champion, it also got him a bit emotional.

“I had a course with his wife, Carmen, before I went out to play today, and she told me how proud he would have been. You know, I said this on this green last year, he means so much to this tour and to the European Ryder Cup Team. We rally so much around his spirit and his quotes and everything he meant for European golf. To equal him last year was cool but to surpass him this year, yeah, I didn’t get this far in my dreams, so it’s very cool,” McIlroy said about winning the Race to Dubai title 7th time to surpass Seve Ballesteros.

Ballesteros passed away in 2011 at the age of 54. However, his legacy stays among European golfers. McIlroy was holding back his tears when he revealed his conversation with Ballesteros’ wife, Carmen Botín O’Shea.

Last year, when McIlroy won the title for the 6th time to tie with the Spaniard, he said, “I think everyone knows what Seve means to European golf and to Ryder Cup players. (In the) European Ryder Cup locker room, all we have are quotes of Seve. We had a changing room with Seve’s shirt from ’95, the last Ryder Cup he played.” His comments from 2024 show how much Seve means to McIlroy. And it’s not just him; many others, including Jon Rahm, look up to him.

Like Rory McIlroy, Rahm idolises Ballesteros, like every other Spanish golfer. “This one was for Seve,” Rahm said after winning his second major championship at the Masters. “It would be a true honour. I want to surpass him, but in a weird sense, I think with the great Seve, it’s an odd feeling to think that I might be ahead of him in any category. But at the end of the day, it is what we strive for.”

He even used Seve’s quote about four putts that he said in a Masters tournament. “I miss the putt. I miss the putt. I miss the putt. I make,” Ballesteros deadpanned when asked about his putts that day. “I just kept thinking to myself, ‘Well, I miss, I miss, I miss, I make.’ Move on to the next,” Rahm said about his Masters victory.

Even Rahm’s father, Edorta, took up golf after watching Ballesteros captain the European team to victory at the 1197 Ryder Cup. So Rahm has grown up hearing about and idolising Seve Ballesteros. Ballesteros has a great legacy. His six European Race to Dubai titles came in an era when Europe’s tour was less global but fiercely competitive. He has built this legacy around iconic stops like Wentworth, the Open de España, and the season‑ending order‑of‑merit races.

Beyond raw numbers, Seve almost single‑handedly elevated the European Tour’s status. He turned the European Tour into a credible rival to the PGA Tour in the 1980s and anchored Europe’s Ryder Cup revolution with his fire and creativity.

Rory McIlroy’s only rivals who could have posed a challenge to his Race to Dubai title this year were Marco Penge and Tyrrell Hatton. Penge was really close, with a gap of only 767 points before heading to the DP World Tour Championship. Although McIlroy didn’t win the event, he finished runner-up. Penge, on the other hand, finished T36. In the end, McIlroy has 5,975.06 points, and Penge had just 4,008.04 points.

Seve Ballesteros joined the Ryder Cup after the Great Britain and Ireland team became the European team. His involvement in Ryder Cup events has inspired many.

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Seve Ballesteros Ryder Cup legacy

Seve Ballesteros’s Ryder Cup legacy is monumental and widely revered for transforming European golf on the international stage. He played a pivotal role in the resurgence of the European Ryder Cup team. Ballesteros played a key role and contributed to five wins as a player and one as a captain. His Ryder Cup career spanned from 1979 to 1997, during which he amassed 22.5 points in 37 matches. This made him one of the most successful and inspirational players in Ryder Cup history.

Ballesteros’s impact extended beyond mere statistics. He brought an intense competitive spirit, passion, and charisma that energized his teammates and changed the team’s culture. He was known for iconic moments like his daring 3-wood from a fairway bunker in the 1983 Ryder Cup and his leadership in Europe’s first Ryder Cup victory on American soil in 1985. His memorable partnership with José María Olazábal was one of the most successful in Ryder Cup history.

As captain in 1997, Ballesteros led Europe to its first-ever Ryder Cup held on the European continent, at Valderrama Golf Club in Spain. That victory was deeply special to him and is often regarded as the pinnacle of his Ryder Cup career. His leadership, competitive fire, and love for the event remain a cornerstone of European Ryder Cup identity.