Ballesteros accepts fine for outburst

Seve Ballesteros has accepted a severe reprimand and undisclosed fine for his controversial conduct in the Italian Open three weeks ago.

Ballesteros was penalised a stroke for slow play during the third round of the tournament, but refused to accept it and changed his scorecard.

European tour chief referee John Paramor, who had imposed the penalty, disqualified him for that and Ballesteros then launched into a furious verbal attack on tour officials, calling them the “PGA Mafia” and accusing Paramor of victimising him.

The reprimand was given for the scorecard incident and the fine – for an undisclosed amount – was for his comments.

Ballesteros said in a statement afterwards: “We had a good meeting and it was very brief. I said what I had to say and I tried to defend myself in a way I thought was fair.

“They listened to me and I will accept what the (tournament) committee decides because they represent the players.

“They will have to make a decision based on what they think is fair. (I have) nothing further to say.”

The Spanish star was called before the committee on the eve of the Volvo PGA championship at Wentworth, which starts today.

Afterwards chairman Mark James said: “Seve gave us a full explanation and his side of the story. The committee are not disclosing the fine, but if Seve wants to he can.”

On the scorecard incident, James added that Ballesteros was “just making a stand, not attempting to cheat”, while on the fine James was prepared to say that “it is with reluctance that we ever fine anybody like Seve”.

The last player to find himself in a similar spotlight over a disciplinary matter was Sergio Garcia, who was fined €7,000 two years ago for an outburst in Australia at the Greg Norman Holden International.

Garcia was angry at being given a penalty, lashed out with his sand wedge at a tree and a golf buggy and then criticised Paramor. He was punished under the tour’s code of conduct, as Ballesteros has been now.

Ballesteros’ indication that he will accept the punishment should be the end of the matter. If he had refused to pay the fine he risked being banned.

The Spanish star was widely criticised for his actions by fellow players but, although he agreed he might have gone further than he should in some of his comments, he was not backing down over the original incident in Italy and the reasons he thought were behind it.

“It was very obvious,” he said. “I have dignity and I thought he (Paramor) was after me all the way. I could have taken the penalty shot, kept quiet, smiled, but I don’t think that is the way someone with dignity is supposed to be.

“It was persecution. It was very clear that the referee was going to penalise me. I have been thinking about it for many, many hours and the more I see the situation the more I realise that he was going to penalise me one way or the other.”

Ballesteros then detailed the sequence of events that led to Paramor telling him on the 16th fairway he had incurred the penalty.

“When I came down the fairway he said, ‘Seve, you have another bad time’. I said ‘John, this is like a war. Here we go, OK. You want me to run’. So I started running in the middle of the fairway.

“To me it was very clear that his intention from the very beginning was to penalise me. Maybe he was told to find respect for referees because of what I said in Madeira when I said I was ‘up to here’ with referees.

“It was as if he was saying ‘Right, I am going to show who we are here’.

“He told my partner that I was penalised one shot and he walked all the way into the scorer’s tent to make sure I was penalised. That is why I was very angry because it was totally out of order and totally unfair.”