Seve wins his first Masters, August 25, 1980: Ballesteros becomes youngest golfer to wear green jacket

ALL smiles and brimming with confidence, Seve Ballesteros slips easily into his first green jacket after taking Jack Nicklaus's record as the youngest player to win The Masters.

But the easy grin was almost wiped off the 23-year-old Spaniard's face just an hour earlier as his apparently unassailable 10-shot lead in the tournament looked like crumbling on the last nine holes.

The flawed genius had destroyed the field on the first 63 holes with some sublime golf to close in on his second Major title. But as the back nine approached at Augusta, Ballesteros made some unspeakable errors to see his lead cut to just four. However, he steadied at the 15th with a birdie and saw the tournament out with a par 72 to pip Gibby Gilbert and Jack Newton to win the first of his two Masters titles.