Four decades on from one of golf’s most distinctive and quietly memorable moments, Nike is marking the anniversary of Seve Ballesteros’ improvised ‘Nike Double Swoosh’ visor at The Masters in 1986.
A limited number of Nike visors, inspired by the original, are being released to commemorate an event that embodies one of those small but telling details that captured the spirit of the Spanish golf legend — instinct and creativity on the biggest stage in golf.
On Saturday and Sunday at Augusta National that year, Ballesteros arrived on the first tee wearing a white visor bearing two Nike swooshes — an unusual sight at a time when Nike had only just entered professional golf.
Ballesteros had already won the Masters twice, in 1980 and 1983, and had recently become Nike’s first golf ambassador. On the first two days of the 1986 Masters, he wore a visor he had bought in the pro shop, but on the weekend that changed. Seve cut two Nike labels from his shirts and fixed them over the visor’s logo, and just like that, the Double Swoosh visor was born. In some pictures, you can still see a small ‘M’ beneath the swooshes, a detail that reflects the improvised nature of the moment.
Ballesteros would go on to carry a three-shot lead on the back nine during one of the most dramatic Sundays in Masters history, before ultimately being overtaken by Jack Nicklaus during his historic sixth Masters victory.
“Dad always understood the moment and was very creative,” said his son Javier, president of the Seve Ballesteros Foundation. “Nike had just signed him and he wanted to represent them properly, especially knowing he would be in contention on the weekend. There wasn’t a visor ready, so he simply created one himself. That was Dad — instinctive and creative. Forty years later, it’s still a special memory, not just because of the visor, but because of how he approached everything.”
The image of Ballesteros leading the Masters, wearing a visor he had improvised himself, became part of golfing folklore. The ‘Double Swoosh’ visor has since become a symbol of both Seve’s personality and a formative moment in Nike’s early presence in professional golf.
To mark the 40-year anniversary, a limited run of visors inspired by the original will be released via nike.com and sevecollection.com.
As part of the anniversary, both Nike and SEVE Collection will donate to the Seve Ballesteros Foundation — advancing brain cancer research and using golf to inspire and support young people.