Olazabal wants to win Royal Trophy for Seve

European thoughts will be with Spanish legend Seve Ballesteros as the continent’s leading golfers take on Asia’s best in the Royal Trophy in Bangkok, Thailand this week.

Europe captain Jose Maria Olazabal is using the ailing Ballesteros as the rallying cry for his team. Seve is the regular captain for the Royal Trophy Europe team but he is now recovering from four operations to remove a tumour in his brain.

According to the Asian Tour website, Olazabal said Ballesteros sent specific instructions to win the title yet again. He said:

“The last instruction that I received from Seve was to win. Period. Seve showed how good he was as a player and then as a captain. I will try to follow him. These eight guys are great players and I’m positive that we will win which is our goal. I have every confidence in my players. They have shown they can play great golf under the gun but we respect the Asian team. It will be a tough match.”

Ballesteros and Olazabal have played together many times in the Ryder Cup. The former, in fact, was one of the leading proponents of a Europe-Asia clash and captain the team to victories in 2006 and 2007.

The tournament, at the Amata Spring Country Club, was shelved last year because of a death in the Thai royal family.

The European team will be led by Irishman Paul McGinley. He is joined by Swedes Niclas Fasth, Johan Edors, Scot Paul Lawrie, Dane Soren Hansen and Pablo Larrazabal, of Spain.

The Asian team, captained by Joe Ozaki, features Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa, Hideto Tanihara and Toru Taniguchi, Charlie Wi and SK Ho, of Korea, China’s Liang Wen-chong and Thais Thongchai Jaidee and Prayad Marksaeng.


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