To commemorate ten years since the tragically early death of golfing great Seve Ballesteros, aged just 54, Sand In Your Eye stepped onto the beach at St Andrews next to the iconic Old Course, scene of his famous 1984 victory at the Golf Open to create a 56m sand drawing of the very moment he clinched the Claret Jug.
The R&A, the governing body of golf is based at St Andrews – the spiritual home of golf. They asked us to create this sand art to launch their season of events celebrating the life of the Spanish golfer. As well as the beach art, they are commissioning “Seve: His Life through the Lens” – a book of photos by renowned sports photographer David Cannon, in autumn a feature length documentary about Seve will come out and an 18-month exhibition will take place at the British Golf Museum in St Andrews.
It was great to work with everybody at the R&A, we had a fantastic day and though it was incredibly cold, the sun shone on the sand art.
This isn’t the first time we have created a golf themed sand drawing, and not the first time we have made sand art to mark the Golf Open – the last time the Open was held was at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, Tourism Ireland asked us to hop on a plane and we made a giant 150 metre sand drawing of all the best things to see in Northern Ireland, including local golfer Rory McIlroy.
In 2018, Jamie was not a million miles away from St Andrews on the beach in Carnoustie Bay with NBC Golf and he made a sand sculpture of the prized Claret Jug, the trophy which each golfer covets when playing the Open.
We’ve even made a sand drawing on an actual golf course, with another portrait of Rory McIlroy in a bunker for Sky Sports.