Seve Ballesteros will forever be remembered in executing some the more memorable and also remarkable shots in golf.
One of these shots comes to mind ahead of this week’s 54th hosting of the Omega European Masters on the Crans-sur-Sierre course at Crans Montana in Switzerland.
Seve is a three-time former tournament champion having won the title in 1977, 1978 and 1989.
Though the champion Spaniard is probably remembered more for his 1993 ‘Great Escape’ from inside the tree-line and up against a concrete wall down the right side of the final hole of the famed Alpine course.
SEVE’S SENSATIONAL SWISS BRILLIANCE – 3⃣3⃣-YEARS AGO THIS WEEK …
As the golf world remembers @SeveBallesteros sensational final round penultimate from against a wall ahead of a closing birdie at the 1993 @omegaEUmasters @DPWorldTour
Read & see video:… pic.twitter.com/u37fzoQk3y
— Fatiha (@TOURMISS) September 2, 2026
This year marks the 33rd anniversary when Seve produced one of the most incredible recovery shots in DP World Tour history when the gifted Spaniard stepped on to the 18th tee in need of a birdie to be in with any hope of catching Englishman Barry Lane.
Fiercely determined as ever, Seve watched on in horror as his ball sailed long and right, coming to rest just five feet from an eight-foot high concrete wall standing between his ball, a swimming pool and the green, some 130 yards away, with only the smallest of gaps to be seen between the wall and a string of branches.
On the bag was a young English caddie Billy Foster, who desperately pleaded with the then 36-year-old and five-time major winner to take his medicine and chip out sideways.
Seve was having none it, sticking to his trademark aggressive guns in laying the face of his sand wedge wide open and fired the ball almost vertically up over the wall, but beneath the tree limbs. Incredibly, given Seve’s proximity to the wall, the ball reaches the edge of the green leaving him a chip shot over a greenside bunker and from where he calmed holed the birdie putt to end his round 3, 3 and 3.
Good friend and colleague media Dave Cannon was present that September 5th, 1993 Sunday afternoon and with Dave proudly reliving one of the more remarkable days in golf. (Video – Golfing World).
Described by Foster as “the best shot I’ve ever seen”, Seve was later asked why he went for such a risky shot, to which he replied, simply: “I just like to keep going forward.”
As it turns out, the birdie still didn’t prove enough, as Lane triumphed by a stroke, but the shot instantly went down as one of the greatest bits of scrambling ever seen in golf – eternalised in stone now at the very spot where Crans-sur-Sierre witnessed another bit of Ballesteros brilliance.
There’s now an appropriate plaque to commemorate Seve’s ‘Great Escape’ shot.
Thank you – DP World Tour.
