Spanking new dress shoes were given pretty unusual treatment before last night's gala dinner, the biggest social function of Ryder Cup week. An attendant at the European Team headquarters ensured that soles and heels were systematically roughened with sandpaper.
"That was Seve's way of guarding against any of his players slipping and injuring himself," said Roddy Carr, business manager to the European Tour skipper. "He has also decided to hand out earplugs to each of the players so that they can use them to block out all noise on the first tee when the tournament starts."
Carr used these examples to illustrate the meticulous nature of Ballesteros, who is renowned for concentrating on the minutest detail. For instance, he admitted yesterday that when he found himself unable to sleep earlier this week, he sat up in bed and proceeded to jot down notes.
About what? "I began to write down how the players appeared that day; how they felt; their strongest points and their weakest points. I do this a lot."
His manager confirmed as much, certainly in his handling of matters relating to the Ryder Cup. Normally his right-hand man, Carr has been given a backroom role this week while Ballesteros deals directly with Richard Hills, the managing director of Ryder Cup Ltd.
"That's the way Seve wanted it," explained his manager. "Our company, Amen Corner, are co-organisers of the event with Ryder Cup Ltd but for this week, Seve insisted that everything be channelled through one person, Richard, who will have Mike Gray of the PGA at The Belfry as an assistant.
"But I was involved in all the preparatory work. And that included setting out a simple, daily schedule of Seve's commitments. Effectively, Richard and I reduced all the paperwork down to two pages, using simple headings."
Today, for instance, it reads: 9.0: European team practice, 10th tee; 14.00 - Present pairings for Friday's opening fourballs; 16.00: Opening ceremony; 17.00: Meet and have picture taken with King (Juan Carlos); 18.00: Evening free. Note: Practice tee at Valderrama closed after morning tee-off: San Roque practice ground open.
On the other page is a list reminding him of the names of the wives or partners of the American team. It reads: Tom Kite - Christy; Fred Couples - no partner; Brad Faxon - wife not here; Jim Furyk - no partner; Scott Hoch - Sally; Lee Janzen - Beverley; Tom Lehman - Melissa; Justin Leonard - Erin Caldwell; Davis Love - Robin; Jeff Maggert - Kelli; Phil Mickelson - Amy; Mark O'Meara - Alicia; Tiger Woods - no partner.
Carr thought the attention to the shoes was a nice touch. "It's commonsense, of course," he said. "But that's typical of the way Seve thinks. And he believes that the earplugs will help players to remain tranquil in what could be the most pressurised situation of their career."
Was he a difficult task-master? "Not particularly," came the reply. "However, he likes things to be done a certain way and with so many demands on his time this week, the last thing he needs is for some important detail to be overlooked."
Another example of Ballesteros' attention to detail is that he and Tom Kite instructed their players not to sign autographs at last night's gala dinner. Four years ago at The Belfry controversy was caused when only American captain Tom Watson told his players not to sign autographs - and even Sam Torrance, a member of the home side that year, was refused in an embarrassing moment for the Scot.
"Seve and I have decided there will be no autographs," said Kite yesterday.
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