The Greatest Shot I Saw: Billy Foster Recalls The Magic Of Seve Ballesteros
Billy Foster has forged a hugely successful career as one of golf’s most respected bagmen.
The straight-talking Yorkshireman – who turned to caddying in 1983 after working with his father as a joiner – is able to reel off a client list that includes Thomas Bjorn, Tiger Woods, Lee Westwood, Darren Clarke, Sergio Garcia as well as his current employer, Matt Fitzpatrick.
But Foster’s career may well have reached its ‘Everest’ over 30 years ago when he was asked to take the bag of the great Seve Ballesteros.
“It was a great experience,” Foster told Golf Monthly. “I grew up going to every Open Championship from the age of nine in 1975, so Seve Ballesteros was my golfing hero – like he was for most people of my generation.”
Foster’s relationship with Seve was sparked just as he was looking to turn his back on the caddying trade. It was 1990 and he had given Gordon Brand Jnr notice that he was leaving to take an assistant pro job at Ilkley Golf Club.
Then, as the season drew to its close, Foster was approached by Ballesteros at the German Masters and a week later a letter arrived at his parents’ house outlining terms: I like your style; Don’t talk to the press; I always have the final word.
Foster said: “To think that a young lad from Yorkshire, a half decent player but not great, working with my dad as an apprentice joiner for £20 a week and getting sacked three times a week, ended up caddying for my boyhood hero was surreal really.
“[It was] a great honour to caddie for the great man, and I spent five wonderful years of my life learning lots about the game and getting lots of bollockings.
“You never knew exactly what you were going to get but you always knew you were going to get excitement and see a couple of wonder shots that you couldn’t imagine playing.
“It was a special, special period of my life that I’ll never forget, and I learnt so much about the game – the attitude, the desire, the passion.
“On the golf course he was a warrior, the…
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