More adversity strikes Ryder Cup rivalry

By Doug Ferguson

Seve Ballesteros has a brain tumor; Paul Azinger has overcome lymphoma.

Their Ryder Cup rivalry was so fierce that Seve Ballesteros once referred to the U.S. team as “11 nice guys and Paul Azinger.”

But when Azinger was stricken with cancer in 1993, Ballesteros was among the first to call.

“He called the house a couple of times and my parents relayed the message,” Azinger recalled Tuesday morning. “That shows you what kind of guy he is. We had an intense rivalry, but you reach beyond that. Rivalries can be healthy, and maybe they cross the line on occasion. But when real life things happen, people reach out to each other.

“I’ll try to call Seve once things calm down.”

Azinger can only hope that Ballesteros can find a way out, as he did so often in a career defined by amazing recoveries.

The five-time major champion was diagnosed with a brain tumor over the weekend, and he was in a Madrid hospital awaiting results of a biopsy to determine the scope and severity.

“No matter what it is, he’ll take a positive outlook and be thorough and do everything right,” Azinger said. “But it’s scary.”

Azinger was diagnosed with lymphoma at the end of the 1993 season, after winning his only major at the PGA Championship and battling Nick Faldo to a draw in a memorable singles match in the Ryder Cup.

He overcame cancer in the peak of his career, but his only role in the next Ryder Cup at Oak Hill was as a television analyst. Even then, he wound up in the same match with Ballesteros — holding a microphone as the Spaniard performed one magical escape after another against Tom Lehman in the leadoff singles.