Ballesteros looking forward to second chance

Seve Ballesteros says his Champions Tour debut this weekend will feel like a second chance in his golfing career.

Five-time major champion Ballesteros last won a tournament, the Spanish Open, on May 21, 1995, a month after his 38th birthday.

Yet, after winning 87 titles worldwide in a glittering career, he suffered an alarming loss in form which stayed with him during his 40s.

Having turned 50 on April 9, however, the Spanish golfing maestro feels like he has been given a new lease of life as he prepares for his first outing as a senior on Friday at the Regions Charity Classic in Birmingham, Alabama.

He said: “Coming over to America to play the Regions Charity Classic is something very special that really makes me feel like this a second chance in my career.

“I’ve a lot of friends on the Champions Tour and that makes me feel very comfortable and it will be really great to compete with those guys again.”

Ballesteros is under no illusions about the high standard of golf required to succeed on the Champions Tour and asked for people not to expect too much from him, at least initially.

He explained: “I’ve followed the Champions Tour a lot on Spanish television and I can tell you that the quality of golf is sometimes fantastic.

“So I don’t want you guys to think that coming here for me will be a piece of cake.

“It’s going to be very tough and I have a lot of respect for all the guys who compete on the Champions Tour, so the first and most important thing for me is to come over here and settle myself.

“I haven’t competed for a long time, only three tournaments in the last two years – so I will do my best but I don’t want you guys to expectant too much from me.

“There might be one good shot here and one good shot there but nothing like you will have seen before.

“I have to try to re-establish myself and get back into the rhythm of competition.

“If I finish top it will be fantastic – if I finish bottom it will not change anything. The main thing will be for me to feel comfortable.”

Ballesteros, who turned pro in 1974 at the age of 16 and won the first of three Opens in 1979 and the first of two Masters a year later, believes being the youngest player on tour again will be a familiar feeling.

He added: “I remember when I won my first Masters in 1980 that I had become the youngest champion there, four years younger than Jack Nicklaus.

“Then Tiger came along a few years later. But this is like a replay of my career. I feel very young, it’s great.”