“Time goes by, but people still love him”

Javier Ballesteros shares his memories of his father with the help of some images from Seve: His Life Through The Lens

- Javier Ballesteros

At home with Seve

I used to wake up with my brother and sister every morning and go to his room, and we’d ask him to tell us stories from when he was young. He had a very normal childhood. He left school when he was 15 because he needed to work and get some money for a house.

He used to caddie in Pedrena. As you can see from the pictures, dad used to hug us all the time and he was very affectionate. From the outside, you might think he was a cold person because he was a superstar in golf, but he was completely the opposite.

He was very affectionate and he wanted to spend loads of time with us. I think I’m kind of the same as him. I’m also very affectionate because I saw it when I was young.

Obviously, he had to practice, but he always had time for us when we wanted to spend time with him. We used to go and play golf, we’d watch Racing Santander football matches and we used to go to the beach and go cycling.

Every July we would watch the Tour de France after lunch. He was a huge fan of Spanish cycling and those were the year's Lance Armstrong was winning. We would do someone- or two-hour bike rides on the road here in Pedrena, which is where that picture (page 56) was taken. He really, really liked it and went cycling many days during the week.