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Swansong or comeback? Whatever it is, we should salute hero Olazabal

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Bill Elliott reports on a heart warming re-appearance for a true great

Almost as quietly as he went away, Jose Maria Olazabal is back this week and competing in the Andalucia Open. Once again this remarkable bloke is doing what he does best and playing golf. What he does almost as well, of course, is battle adversity.

Twelve weary years ago his fight against a particularly vicious form of arthritis began when his foot became so painful he struggled to walk never mind play golf. Only he did not know for 18 months that it was an arthritic complaint. Instead he received treatment for this and that and tried very hard not to scream with the pain.

Often, however, he did scream. Sometimes these screams were borne of frustration rather than pain as he screeched against having to crawl on his stomach during the short journey from bed to bathroom. "I feared that the rest of my life would be spent in a wheelchair, " he told me soon after this dreadful ordeal.

But, of course, he did walk again. Not only walk, he won his second Masters title in 1999. This, viewed how you like, represented one hell of a recovery and although it received serious attention at the time it never quite got the ballyhoo it deserved. This is how I feel anyway.

Part of the reason I believe Jose was short-changed in the 'hero' department - and 'hero' is a word spread too thinly most of the time in the hyped up sports world - is that to win the Masters 18 months after all that screaming was a fantastic achievement; mostly, however, it is because Jose Maria Olazabal is an extraordinary sportsman.

Born in Basque country, the son of a greenkeeper, he took to golf because he spent so much time at the club where his father worked and where his mother earned a few extra pesetas cleaning the toilets. Most of the members treated the Olazabals with the respect they deserved but occasionally Jose would witness the humiliating crassness with which his mother in particular would be treated. Twenty years ago when he first told me about these experiences he cried as he remembered the bad times.

Before too long, however, Olazabal's instant success as a professional golfer meant he could buy his parents a decent home and take care of many other needs. He wanted to win as a pro and the reason he wanted to win so much was to take his mum out of those toilets forever.

He had been a stunning amateur, winning the national titles in Spain, Italy and Belgium before lifting the big one, the British Amateur in 1984 when he beat a bewildered Colin Montgomerie in the final. "I'd come up against some excellent players by then but no-one who could make the ball move quite like Jose," is how Monty recalls that encounter.

When he won his first Masters title in 1994 Jose became the only British amateur champion to win a professional major since the Second World War. He has also won 21 other titles on the European Tour as well as gracing the Ryder Cup matches where his partnership with Seve Ballesteros swiftly achieved legendary status. Last summer he withdrew from The Open at Carnoustie with what was described as a knee injury. We now know this was the return of the arthritis to a man who is still only 42.

Now he is back although he warns that this week is a test to see if he can actually play pro golf, that there remains a chance that one of the genuinely great European careers may be prematurely curtailed. I would not for a moment suggest anyone bets on Jose Maria Olazabal in Spain this week but I would say that if someone was offering decent odds on identifying the most ballsy golfer out there then we should all do our brains in on Jose.