Seve makes emotional first public appearance

GOLF legend Seve Ballesteros has made an emotional first public appearance since undergoing four brain operations.

The five-times major winner was given a standing ovation by a crowd of 15,772 football fans at a match in Spain on Sunday night.

Ballesteros, 51, spent more than a month in intensive care after being diagnosed with a brain tumour last October.

He had a series of life-saving operations and doctors warned that his recovery would take a long time.

On Sunday night the father-of-three watched Racing Santander lose 2-0 at home to Almeria in a Spanish first division match.

He sat between the chairmen of the two teams and stood to wave at the crowd, tears welling in his eyes, when they cheered him before kick-off at the El Sardinero stadium, in northern Spain.

Wearing a dark overcoat over a white shirt and blue jeans, Ballesteros looked visibly older and weaker than he did before being struck down with the tumour.

The Spaniard, a lifelong fan of Racing Santander, said in interview last week: “I’m alive, I can do things, I speak, I can reason. I have had a lot of luck.”

Ballesteros was diagnosed with the tumour after collapsing at Madrid’s Barajas Airport last October.

The legendary golfer, who won 87 titles during his career including the British Open in 1979, 1984 and 1988 and captained Europe to Ryder Cup victory at Valderrama in 1997, underwent four operations in two weeks after a series of complications.

But he made a remarkable recovery and in December was released from hospital and returned to his home in the coastal resort of Pedrena, near Santander, where he started a course of chemotherapy.