Seve Ballesteros Can Surely Use Some Prayers

Sorry, but this one's a bit personal.

Seve Ballesteros could sure use your prayers about now. On Friday, his family made a short but haunting statement:

"Seve's neurological condition has suffered a severe deterioration."

And that's not good.

This one's personal because Seve was part of my world in a previous work life, one where I spent my misguided youth as a golf writer for a metropolitan daily.

Loved Seve. Loved his youth, his swagger, his style.

He'd casually greet me with one of his "how eeez going?" salutations, which was Seve for "how's it going?"

It was always going great for Seve, even when it wasn't. When you ran across Seve at an event and shared a moment outside the press tent with him, you were better off for it. His smile was always quick and infectious.

He had charisma and then some. Heck, he made charisma look weak. He was beyond charismatic. If you looked up the word in the dictionary, his picture was there.

His imperfect English was simply perfect.

Loved it when he'd tell you he hit a "Ning-eyeron," which was Seve for a nine-iron.

One of my favorite Seve moments came when I casually asked him about how the driver was treating him and he gave me this gem:

"Eeez like a cobra, every time I peeeek it up, eeet bite me in zeee neck."

That was Seve on tour. He'd tell you what he was thinking.

I think about now it would be a great idea if at some point today or tomorrow or whenever, you drop a prayer his way.

Right about now, he'd could use them.

And the young man I knew those many years ago would be incredibly grateful.