Seve Ballesteros‘ son is not happy with the changes made by the DP World Tour. DP World Tour created a competition called the Hero Cup, which will ‘replace’ the Seve Trophy. Seve Trophy was held from 2000 to 2013, after the death of Ballesteros.
Ballesteros was the captain of the European team 4 times and he left a big mark. This is precisely why the Seve Trophy competition existed, as it was held in his honor. The leaders of DP World Tour had an interesting proposal for his son, but he categorically refused it.
“I heard nothing more about it until only one day before the announcement was made, when ET contacted me to let me know there was a “new” match play event – being this an exact copy of The Seve Trophy – and wanted my dad to be involved in some way.
We obviously said NO. We don’t want anything out of this, but only The Seve Trophy back, not a copy of it. We believe our dad deserves something better from The European Tour, given the unconditional support he always gave to The European Tour and the legacy he left behind.”
– Ballestero’s son said, as quoted by skysports.
DP World CEO on the tournament
DP World Tour Deputy CEO Guy Kinnings emphasized how much he and the DP World Tour have respect for Ballesteros and for all that he has done for golf and the competition.
“The final arrangements came together very quickly to enable us to stage a team event in early 2023. I was personally in touch with the Ballesteros family before the announcement to brief them and we intend to discuss further with them.
We honour Seve’s legacy in many ways. His name adorns one of our main meeting rooms at our Wentworth HQ, we changed the name of our players’ player award to the Seve Ballesteros award in 2017 and I remember in the 2018 Ryder Cup in France where the last thing our players saw before they left the locker room to go on the course was Seve’s Ryder Cup bag with the phrase written above it, ‘This is why you are here’. We respect Seve’s legacy every single day and we will continue to do so.”