Open de Baleares Golf Tournament (European Tour)

The Open de Baleares was a golf tournament on the European Tour from the late 1980s through the mid-1990s. It was played in the Balearic Islands of Spain, and a Spanish legend was the event's biggest winner.

First played: 1988

Last played: 1995

When Ove Sellberg won the 1989 tournament, he became the first Swedish golfer to win on the European Tour. One interesting (if meaningless) bit of trivia: Three golfers lost playoffs in the Open de Baleares, and all three were Swedes. Seve Ballesteros was responsible for two of their defeats, winning playoffs in two of his tournament-record three victories.

In Ballesteros' first win, in the tournament's first year of 1988, he won by a tournament-record six strokes over runner-up Jose Maria Olizabal — an auspicious start for a Spanish event.

Ballesteros also shares the tournament scoring record of 269 with Magnus Persson (whom he defeated in one of those playoffs) and Barry Lane.

Also known as: The tournament went through multiple title sponsors in its short history. Event names inluded Mallorca Open De Baleares, Open Renault de Baleares, Turespana Open de Baleares and Turespana Iberia Open de Baleares.

Winners of the Open de Baleares

1988 — Seve Ballesteros, 272
1989 — Ove Sellberg, 279
1990 — Seve Ballesteros, 269 (def. Magnus Persson in playoff)
1991 — Gavan Levenson, 282
1992 — Seve Ballesteros, 277 (def. Jesper Parnevik in playoff)
1993 — Jim Payne, 277 (def. Anders Gillner in playoff)
1994 — Barry Lane, 269
1995 — Greg Turner, 274

Golf courses: The Open de Baleares was always played on the island of Mallorca. It rotated among three courses: Santa Ponsa I, Santa Ponsa II and Arabella Golf Son Vida.