Story highlights
Javier Ballesteros wins the amateur Madrid Open
The 22-year-old is the son of the late five-time major Seve Ballesteros
Seve passed away in 2011 after a lengthy battle with a cancerous brain tumor
Seve's close friend Jose Maria Olazabal captains Europe in the Ryder Cup this month
Golf fans grew accustomed to the sight of Seve Ballesteros lifting trophies aloft during his glittering career, and his son Javier is continuing the family tradition.
Javier Ballesteros, son of five-time major winner Seve, finished on six-under par to clinch the three-round amateur Madrid Open.
Seve, who won a record 50 European Tour events during his 33-year playing career, passed away aged 55 in May last year after a prolonged battle with a cancerous brain tumor.
“My father always told me that you have to play with what you got, and that’s what I did,” 22-year-old Javier, a law student in the Spanish capital, was reported to have said by AP.
“I thought about him a lot during the 18 holes and I dedicate this victory to him and my mother.”
Javier’s win arrived 12 days before his father’s close friend Jose Maria Olazabal captains Europe in the Ryder Cup against the United States.
The Spanish pair played together in four Ryder Cup matches between 1987 and 1993, winning three and drawing the other, and are widely regarded as one of the finest duos in the competition’s history.
Ballesteros also captained a European team which included Olazabal to victory on Spanish soil at Valderrama in 1997.
Olazabal’s Europe will be looking to defend the trophy they won in 2010 when the 39th Ryder Cup match begins at the Medinah Country Club in Illinois on September 28.
