Spanish Golf great Seve Ballesteros dies at 54

Severiano Ballesteros, was five time champion major whose passion and gift for the manufacture of imaginative shooting reinvigorated European golf and the Ryder Cup, has died following a cancerous brain tumour. He was 54.

A statement on the site Web Ballesteros early Saturday, said the large golf died peacefully at 2: 10 a.m., hour local, surrounded by his family at his home in Pedrena, in the North of the Spain.

Ballesteros, Masters and three times winner of British Open champion twice, was also inspiring in Europe as Arnold Palmer was in America, a handsome figure who would fear no blow fire and often played where no golfer had never been.

Headlines such as "The inventor of Spanish golf" and "life of a legend" have been splashed across Web sites of Spanish media as fellow golfers, athletes and figures across worldwide paid rendered tribute.

George O'Grady, the head of the Executive of the European Tour, said Ballesteros was the INSPIRER of the tour.

"It's a very sad day for all those who love golf," O'Grady said on the website of the tour.

"Unique legacy of the Seve should be the inspiration he has given to so look, support and play golf, and finally to combat cruel illness with equal flair, passion and fierce determination." We all have been so fortunate to live in his time. He was the inspirator of the European tour. ?

FILE - in this may 18, 2007 file photo, Seve Ballesteros smiles before departure on the first hole for the golf tournament regions Charity Classic at Robert Trent Jones Golf Course in Hoover, Alabama Ballesteros dies, Friday, may 6, 2011, according to a statement on its Web site. The 54-year-old Spanish golf great had been resting at his home in Pedrena, North of the Spain, where he was mainly since undergoing four operations to remove a tumor in the brain in late 2008. (AP photo / Rob Carr, file) Close

President of the Spanish Federation of golf Gonzaga Escauriaza said Ballesteros, an "icon" Spanish Golf, has transformed the sport.

"Severiano Ballesteros was a unique, non-repeatable person," said Escauriaza. "We must recognize that we are where we are now, that golf is a popular sport... in large part to Severiano Ballesteros". We all owes him much. ?

No. 1-ranked Lee Westwood wrote on Twitter: "it is a sad day." A source of inspiration, genius, has lost model roll, hero and friend. Seve is European golf what it is today. RIP Seve. ?

In a long list of spectacular photos, perhaps the most memorable came from a parking lot near the 16th fairway at Royal Lytham & St. Annes in the British Open in 1979. Leading by two shots in the final round, he led his balloon in the lot, had a car removed for his fall free, then fired his second shot to 15 feet and made birdie on his way to his first major.

"It was a man who had problems." Gary Player only for Seve, there is no disorder, "said." "It could make shots like a genius."

His final challenge came from an unbeatable enemy - cancer.

Ballesteros fainted in a Madrid airport pending on a flight to the Germany on October 6, 2008 and was diagnosed later the tumor to the brain. He suffered four separate operations, including a 6?-hour procedure to remove the tumor and to reduce swelling around the brain. After leaving the hospital, her treatment continued with chemotherapy.

Ballesteros seemed thin and pale, by making several public appearances in 2009, after receiving what he calls the "mulligan in my life." He was rarely in public since March 2010, when it fell a golf cart and hit his head on the ground.

His few public statements or appearances were generally in relation to the Seve Ballesteros Foundation to fight cancer. He wanted but was unable to take part in an exhibition of champions at St. Andrews at the British Open.

Such was his stature, even outside the public eye, that European players celebrated its most recent anniversary - Saturday from the masters - as if it was a national holiday.