Jose Luis Ballester hoists The Havemeyer Trophy after successful the 2024 U.S. Novice on Sunday at Hazeltine.
USGA/Chris Keane
CHASKA, Minn. — The legend of Jose Luis Ballester slowly unfold throughout the property on Thursday afternoon.
Taking part in a Spherical of 16 match in opposition to Christian Model at Hazeltine Nationwide Golf Membership, Ballester and Model reached the uphill, into-the-wind 624-yard par-5 third gap. Ballester’s tee ball discovered the appropriate facet of the green, and from about 315 yards out he reached into his bag and grabbed… driver.
The 100 or so followers strolling alongside exchanged puzzled appears. Driver? However Ballester took a mighty swing and hit a low, piercing reduce that landed in entrance of the inexperienced and rolled out to pin excessive, 15 toes away. He confirmed no expression, however these round him have been flabbergasted. Followers walked round seeking to verify yardages on sprinkler heads. A number of who introduced rangefinders measured the space themselves.
Even three holes later, on the sixth fairway, a mid-50s man was nonetheless making an attempt to unpack all of it. He walked aimlessly within the tough whereas speaking on the cellphone.
“It was driver off the rattling deck, Steve,” he stated. “You must have heard the sound of it. Not the sight of it, however the sound of it.”
So who is that this new U.S. Novice champion? Regardless of being ranked tenth on the planet, the Spaniard’s quiet, low-key demeanor had him flying below the radar all week. However after Sunday — and his 2-up victory over Noah Kent within the U.S. Novice remaining — Ballester’s not off the radar.
Not even shut.
In an effort to beat Kent within the 36-hole remaining, Ballester needed to additionally overpower the crowds. It was already American vs. Spaniard on U.S. soil, and Kent was even considerably native, on condition that he goes to high school only a 4 1/2-hours drive south on the College of Iowa. He had an enormous quantity of help in his nook, and despite the fact that it by no means acquired overly aggressive, it was nonetheless closely within the rising sophomore’s favor.
Fortunately, Ballester had maybe the very best particular person on earth to correctly educate him about this explicit state of affairs: Sergio Garcia. They’re from the identical space in Spain and Garcia’s father, Victor Garcia, has coached Ballester the previous seven years. Ballester and Sergio have grown shut and even performed rounds collectively, and it was on this similar course Garcia needed to take care of rowdy American crowds for the 2016 Ryder Cup, when he halved his Sunday singles match with fan favourite Phil Mickelson.
Garcia and Ballester talked all through the week and once more on Saturday night time.
“He instructed me simply keep affected person in your recreation,” stated Ballester, a rising senior at Arizona State, “and one of the simplest ways to exhibit to the opposite followers is along with your recreation.”
USGA/Chris Keane
Ping-Pong additionally helps. He’s performed it each night time this week, and though he appears stone-cold contained in the ropes, Ballester joked that Ping-Pong in all probability helps him launch aggression — “I get actually, actually pissed at Ping-Pong,” he stated — so he doesn’t should on the course. He performed once more on Saturday night time, though he had bother sleeping. Sure, he was already within the 2025 Masters and U.S. Open by merely attending to the ultimate, however how many individuals can say they’ve gained this trophy? That retains a person up at night time.
“While you come to this remaining and to this sort of alternatives, you need to write your identify in historical past,” Ballester stated.
Because the son of former Olympians who competed in three totally different Olympic Video games, Ballester has good genes. His father, Jose Luis Ballester, was a swimmer, and his mom, Sonia Barrio, gained gold in discipline hockey on the 1992 Summer time Video games. However he’s had his personal success on the golf course. In three years at ASU he’s earned honorable point out All-America each season. In 2023 he certified for the 2023 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool and missed the reduce by two strokes. He hits it a mile, however his quick recreation isn’t any joke, both.
Final 12 months he missed the reduce on the U.S. Novice, his first USGA occasion. Now? He was within the remaining and with an opportunity to be the primary Spaniard ever to win The Havemeyer Trophy. And on Sunday morning, Ballester wasted little time getting a head begin. He birdied two of the primary 4 and took an early 2-up lead, and even on the holes Ballester wasn’t making birdie, Kent struggled off the tee. Ballester gained 16 and 17 with pars and was 4 up after 18.
Throughout the break between rounds, Kent, a rising Iowa sophomore, stated he took an extended bathe and spent a while on the cellphone, speaking to mentor John Harris, sports activities psychologist Brett McCabe and coach Claude Harmon III. One thing labored, as a result of Kent gave the gallery a jolt when he chipped in for birdie to win the primary gap of the second 18.
“You don’t need to be 4 down going into an 18-hole match,” Kent stated, “however it’s been executed earlier than, and I saved telling myself that.”
They traded blows within the afternoon and Ballester’s lead shrunk to 2 up after Kent gained the thirty first and thirty second holes. On the thirty third gap (the par-4 sixteenth) Ballester hit his drive proper and was left with tree bother and a horrible lie. He chunked it into the marsh in entrance of the inexperienced. Watching close by was Ballester’s greatest buddy Navid Mousavi, who anxiously bit his nails and exhaled. In addition to Ballester’s two Arizona State coaches who made the journey, Mousavi may need been the one pro-Ballester fan who really knew him who was on-site.
Mousavi grew up with Ballester and performs on the William Carey College males’s staff in Mississippi. He got here up for Saturday’s semifinals and adopted each shot the final two days.
“He’s a terrific child with nice values,” stated Mousavi, who was carrying a white model of the purple Spain nationwide staff shirt Ballester wore Sunday. “He’s all the time been an extended hitter, however round 15 or 16 he acquired large, taller and stronger. He’s all the time been sturdy on the fitness center, and he simply hits it ceaselessly.”
Mousavi stated Ballester is severe contained in the ropes however will be goofy, too, like after they have been rooming collectively for a event after they have been 14 and Ballester randomly shaved a stripe of hair off his calf and took some from his eyebrow, too. (“His mother was not completely happy,” Mousavi stated.)
His faculty coach, Matt Thurmond, stated Ballester isn’t the Solar Devils’ vocal chief and is vulnerable to drifting off or taking pre-round naps, however as quickly as a spherical begins he has no downside locking in.
And that sixteenth gap the place Ballester acquired in bother — the thirty fourth of the day — may need been Thurmond’s favourite second from Sunday. Ballester lastly discovered the ball after on the lookout for a few minutes, muscled it out and scared the outlet with a par attempt from 40-feet away. Kent had a simple two-putt par to win and reduce Ballester’s result in 1 up, however Thurmond stated it was an instance of Ballester’s willpower. He simply assumed he was going to take a drop and hope to chip in.
“To really have a putt to possibly attempt to gap,” Thurmond stated, “I felt like that in a method was somewhat victory and it confirmed his struggle.”
They pushed with pars on the par-3 seventeenth, so Ballester and Kent went to the thirty sixth gap with Ballester 1 up. Kent drove it right into a fairway bunker, missed the inexperienced and didn’t chip in for birdie, and the outlet was conceded after Ballester nestled his birdie putt to tap-in vary.
He had gained. After which he began to cry.
“I began considering so much about my household and mates, particularly my mother and my dad,” Ballester stated. “It’s been a tough summer season for me. I wasn’t feeling actually good and like some private points. My grandma isn’t feeling excellent. She’s fairly sick. It was a tough summer season again in Spain, so I really feel like all these feelings type of got here out enthusiastic about my household and my mates again in Spain.”
Thurmond couldn’t maintain again the tears both.
“Simply to see him on this second, a second that can final ceaselessly that’s life altering for him,” Thurmond stated. “To get to this second, to be this good, on this stage, you must overcome so much, and he has.”
It was a day to rejoice. Not solely a U.S. Novice trophy, however Ballester’s birthday. He turned 21 on Sunday.
“It may possibly’t get significantly better than this,” he stated.
