{"id":425954,"date":"2026-01-20T17:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T17:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/425954\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T17:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T17:48:10","slug":"statue-of-golf-icon-stolen-as-police-launch-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/425954\/","title":{"rendered":"Statue of golf icon stolen as police launch investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spanish authorities have opened an investigation after a bronze statue honouring golf legend Seve Ballesteros disappeared from his birthplace of Pedrena in the Cantabria region over the weekend.<\/p>\n

The Marina de Cudeyo Town Council announced the incident on Sunday via social media, describing it as “an unfortunate event” and stating that “everything indicates that it was a theft.”<\/p>\n

The life-sized tribute, which had served as a centrepiece in the small village near Santander for nearly a decade, vanished at some point during the weekend, according to local police who spoke to Reuters.<\/p>\n

Officers are now attempting to track down those responsible and retrieve the stolen monument.<\/p>\n

The sculpture was the work of artist Salvador Garc\u00eda Ceballos, who completed it in 2009, though it was not given a permanent home in La Barquer\u00eda Park until 2017.<\/p>\n

Cast in bronze, the statue captured one of the most memorable moments in British golf history \u2013 Ballesteros with his fist thrust skyward in celebration.<\/p>\n

This triumphant gesture became synonymous with his dramatic 1984 Open Championship victory at St Andrews, where the Spaniard overcame a deficit against Tom Watson in the final round to claim the Claret Jug by two strokes.<\/p>\n

That win denied Watson what would have been a third consecutive Open title.<\/p>\n

\"Seve<\/p>\n

Spanish authorities have opened an investigation after a bronze statue honouring golf legend Seve Ballesteros disappeared<\/p>\n

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The town council has issued a public plea for assistance in solving the case.<\/p>\n

In a Facebook post, the council urged: “If anyone has observed any suspicious activity, especially in the last 24 hours, please report it to the police.”<\/p>\n

Both the Civil Guard and local police forces have begun their inquiries into the disappearance, with investigators working to piece together what happened and identify potential suspects.<\/p>\n

The council also posted an image of the missing statue on Instagram as part of their appeal for information.<\/p>\n

\"Seve<\/p>\n

His major haul included three Open Championship triumphs in 1979, 1984 and 1988, alongside Masters victories in 1980 and 1983<\/p>\n

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Authorities are particularly keen to hear from anyone who may have witnessed unusual activity in or around La Barquer\u00eda Park during the weekend.<\/p>\n

Ballesteros remains one of the sport’s most celebrated figures, having claimed five major championships during a glittering career that spanned from 1979 to 1988.<\/p>\n

His major haul included three Open Championship triumphs in 1979, 1984 and 1988, alongside Masters victories in 1980 and 1983.<\/p>\n

The Spaniard also proved a formidable force in team competition, accumulating 22.5 points across 37 Ryder Cup matches.<\/p>\n

\"Seve<\/p>\n

Ballesteros was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2008 and passed away in Pedrena in May 2011<\/p>\n

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His achievements place him fifth on Europe’s all-time points list.<\/p>\n

He helped the continent win four tournaments as both player and captain.<\/p>\n

He spent 61 weeks ranked world number one and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1999.<\/p>\n

Ballesteros was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2008 and passed away in Pedrena in May 2011, aged 54.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spanish authorities have opened an investigation after a bronze statue honouring golf legend Seve Ballesteros disappeared from his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,48,755,44,13296,2020,588,85,1346],"class_list":["post-425954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-crime","tag-golf","tag-news","tag-sgg","tag-spain","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}