While Seve Ballesteros lost the 1986 Masters, he immortalized the major in a different way. His son, Javier Ballesteros, shared the story on his X profile.

“In 1986 at The Masters, Dad had a contract with Nike, but the brand didn’t make golf headwear at the time. For the first two rounds, he wore a visor with the Augusta National logo. Over the weekend, he cut the tags off two polo shirts and attached them to the visor so Nike’s logo could still be seen.”

As fans may remember, Nike had just entered into the sport two years ago with their Turnberry golf shoes. A year later, Ballesteros became the first golf athlete to sign with them, and the stakes were higher than ever for Nike to grow in the sport.

That's when the 1986 Masters rolled around. Throughout the event, Ballesteros had worn the usual Masters visor, available for sale to everyone watching the event.

However, a Nike representative knew how viewership would increase going into the final round. That's when Ballesteros improvised.

He cut out Nike logos from two of his shirts and attached them to the visor, placing them over the Masters logo. Two logos were needed to fully cover the original mark, resulting in the distinctive visor he wore that day.

What followed was a turning point for Nike. In the same year, they signed their first college team, the University of Georgia women. In a few years, they had taken over the sponsorship of the Ben Hogan Tour, and by 1996, they had Tiger Woods on their side. All starting with an innovative gesture from Ballesteros.

Unfortunately for him, the double swoosh might just be all he would like to remember from the '86 Masters.

Written by

Aditi Singh

Edited by

Siddharth Shirwadkar