The great Spanish player, Severiano Ballesteros, died this weekend after succumbing to brain cancer. It was a tragic end to the life of an extraordinary golfer who truly changed the face of his sport in Europe.

He was barely more than a boy when he first ventured onto the European Tour at the very end of 1974 but, by the middle of 1975, those who were taking more than just cursory glances at the scores from Europe in the sports pages would have noticed his name appearing in the top half of big events most weeks.

Mike Cahill, who would go on to win the 1977 Australian PGA Championship, came back from Europe at the end of the European summer of 1975 and told me: ''You ought to see this kid play. He is incredible.''

A little more than half a year later, Ballesteros announced himself to the world when he opened the British Open at Royal Birkdale with a 69. In the locker room players with only a superficial knowledge of European golf congratulated the third Ballesteros brother, Manuel, on his fine score. ''Not me,'' said Manuel, ''it's my little brother.''

Seve led the hottest player on the tour, American Johnny Miller, after three rounds but Miller managed a final 66 while the Spanish teenager finished with an eagle and a birdie for a 74 and a tie for second place with Jack Nicklaus.

Seve was away, and later that year he was invited to play in the Australian Open, sponsored by Kerry Packer at The Australian.

Early in the week, Ballesteros was playing a practice round alone and he was flipping bunker shots out of the greenside bunker by the ninth green. Packer was standing high above the green up on the first tee and, as apparently only he could, bellowed abuse at this player hitting more shots from the bunker than the practice rules allowed.

Ballesteros was a proud man who would come to be known for his long memory of personal slights and no one was going to talk to him that way.

He shot a disinterested 86 in the opening round and headed back to Spain on Friday night.

Later, he would conduct well-publicised feuds with the European Tour, over appearance money, and the US Tour and its commissioner, Deane Beman, over the number of events he needed to play to retain his playing privileges on the American Tour. Beman wanted him to play by the American's rules and commit to 15 events.

It was a ridiculous request by the US Tour given Ballesteros was in demand all over the world and had serious commitments in his home continent.

Twenty-five years later, the fabulous collection of world-wide players can thank Ballesteros for clearing the way for them to play a global schedule.

The Spaniard won his first major championship at Royal Lytham in 1979, beating a white handkerchief-waving Hale Irwin, a clinically accurate American who only a month earlier had won his national Open. Seve clattered the ball all over the links from the tee but in one of the most staggering performances on a brutally difficult course he holed the most improbable of putts, hit the most perfect bunker shots and then finished off Irwin, Nicklaus, Ben Crenshaw and Australian Rodger Davis when he made a birdie at the 16th after driving into the carpark.

The orthodox and normally ruthless Irwin could not stomach a man burying him on the golf course whilst missing fairway after fairway with a swing that showed little regard for orthodoxy.

Singlehandedly, Ballesteros was bringing the game to life in Europe and he showed his European contemporaries including Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam, Sandy Lyle, Nick Faldo and a little later his compatriot, Jose-Maria Olazabal, that winning in America was possible and those six players dominated the US Masters for almost 20 years.

The spring following Lytham, he lead the Masters by ten shots with nine holes to play. He dunked irons into the water at both the 12th and 13th holes and Jack Newton climbed within two shots with five holes to play.

But that was as close as his pursuers came and he was the champion the week of his 23rd birthday.

He won at Augusta again in 1983 - ''he was driving a Ferrari and the rest of us were driving Chevrolets,'' said Ben Crenshaw - but lost to Nicklaus after hitting a four iron into the water at the 15th in 1986 and then three-putted the first playoff hole the following year. That was the Masters Larry Mize chipped in at the 11th hole to crush Greg Norman's best chance to win at Augusta.

Two more Open triumphs followed Ballesteros' 1979 win.

He birdied the final hole in 1984 at St Andrews to beat Tom Watson and, in 1988, he beat Faldo and Nick Price at Lytham. That day he again birdied the 16th, but this time with a perfect nine iron from the middle of the fairway. ''As soon as I heard his club hit the ball,I knew he had hit the perfect shot,'' said Price, who would three putt the final hole to finish two shots behind.

Ballesteros was the most magical player to watch. He was a truly charismatic man who turned heads by just walking into a room. On the course it was not just his extraordinary shots - both short and long - but the way he sized up a hole or a shot, the theatrical way he would take the club from the bag and his swing which, whilst not technically perfect, was a thing of beauty.

Truly great men make better the lives of all they touch. Ballesteros made the lives of all he played with - I count myself lucky to be among that number - and all who watched his magic immeasurably better. And generations to come will envy those who saw the man from Pedrena, a tiny fishing village in northern Spain, play golf.