José Luis Ballester Barrio (born 18 August 2003) is a Spanish amateur

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

er. He won the 2020

Spanish Amateur The Spanish International Amateur Championship (Copa S.M. el Rey) is an annual amateur golf tournament in Spain for men. Prior to 2020 it was an "A" rated tournament in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. (The calculation of the ranking changed in ...

and the

European Amateur The European Amateur Championship is an annual amateur golf tournament played at various locations throughout Europe. It is organized by the European Golf Association and was one of the "Elite" tournaments recognized by the World Amateur Golf ...

and

European Amateur Team Championship The European Amateur Team Championship is a European amateur team golf championship for men organised by the European Golf Association which was introduced in 1959. The championship was played in odd-numbered years from 1959 to 2007 and has bee ...

in 2023.

Early life and family

Ballester was born in Castellón and is known as ''Josele''. His parents are José Luis Ballester, an Olympic swimmer, and

Sonia Barrio Sonia Barrio Gutiérrez (born 13 December 1969 in Madrid) is a former field hockey player from Spain, who was a member of the Women's National Team that surprisingly won the golden medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Barrio also com ...

, a field hockey player who won gold at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

. Ballester is coached by

Sergio García Sergio García Fernández (; born 9 January 1980) is a Spanish professional golfer. He has played on the European Tour, PGA Tour and LIV Golf Invitational Series. García has won 36 international tournaments as a professional, most notably ...

's father and considers Sergio to be a mentor, and uses

Joaquín Niemann Joaquín Niemann (born 7 November 1998) is a Chilean professional golfer. He has won twice on the PGA Tour. He was the number one ranked amateur golfer from May 2017 to April 2018. Amateur career Niemann was the number one ranked golfer in the ...

's mental coach.

Amateur career

Ballester had a successful junior career and lost the final of the 2018

Boys Amateur Championship The Boys Amateur Championship is a golf tournament which is held annually in the United Kingdom. The competition is organised and run by The R&A. History The Boys Amateur Championship was first played at Royal Ascot in 1921. In 1921 boys had to ...

Royal Portrush Golf Club Royal Portrush Golf Club is a private golf club in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The 36-hole club has two links courses, the Dunluce Links (the championship course) and the Valley Links. The former is one of the courses on the rota of the Ope ...

Conor Gough Conor John Joseph Gough (born 9 August 1993 in Ilford, Essex) is an English Association football, footballer who plays as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper for Coggeshall Town F.C., Coggeshall Town. Career Gough started his footba ...

, 3 and 1. In 2019, he won the Spanish U-16 Championship and played for Spain in the

European Young Masters The European Young Masters is a European amateur mixed team golf championship for boys and girls under 16 organised by the European Golf Association The European Golf Association (EGA) is a non-profit organisation based in Epalinges, Switze ...

, where he won silver at Kunětická Hora in the Czech Republic. He was runner-up at the 2019 Junior Orange Bowl International and the 2020 Desert Amateur in the United States. Ballester won the 2020

at Real Club Sevilla Golf, beating Jannik De Bruyn of Germany, 3 and 1, in the final. In 2021, Ballester enrolled at

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in t ...

and started playing college golf with the Arizona State Sun Devils men's golf team, where he earned All-American honors in each of his first two seasons. He has trained with Sun Devils alumni

Jon Rahm Jon Rahm Rodríguez (born 10 November 1994) is a Spanish professional golfer. He was the number one golfer in the World Amateur Golf Ranking for a record 60 weeks and later became world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking, first a ...

and

Phil Mickelson Philip Alfred Mickelson (born June 16, 1970), nicknamed Lefty, is an American professional golfer who plays for LIV Golf. He has won 45 events on the PGA Tour, including six major championships: three Masters titles (2004, 2006, 2010), two P ...

. At the

2022 Arnold Palmer Cup The 2022 Arnold Palmer Cup was a team golf competition to be held from 1–3 July 2022 at Golf Club de Genève, Vandœuvres, Switzerland. It was the 26th time the event had been contested and the fifth under the new format in which women golfers p ...

in Switzerland, he replaced Eugenio Chacarra who turned professional before the event. Ballester won 3.5 of 4 possible points as the international team beat the Americans 33–27. In 2023, he won the

by 2 strokes at Pärnu Bay Golf Links in Estonia, which earned him invitation to the

2023 Open Championship The 2023 Open Championship, officially the 151st Open Championship, was a golf tournament played from 20–23 July 2023 at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, Merseyside, England. This was the 13th time that The Open was played at Royal Liverp ...

Royal Liverpool Golf Club The Royal Liverpool Golf Club is a golf club in Wirral in Merseyside, England. It was founded in 1869 on what was then the racecourse of the Liverpool Hunt Club. It received the "Royal" designation in 1871 due to the patronage of the Duke of ...

Amateur wins

*2018 Campeonato Sub18 Comunidad Valenciana, Campeonato Absoluto de las Comunidad Valenciana *2019 Campeonato de Castellon, Campeonato de Espana Sub-16 *2020

(Copa S.M. el Rey), Copa Match Play Comunidad Valenciana *2023

(individual medalist) Source:

Results in major championships

"T" = tied

Team appearances

Amateur *

(representing Spain): 2019 *

European Boys' Team Championship The European Boys' Team Championship (Jean-Louis Dupont Trophy) is a European amateur team golf championship for men up to 18 organized by the European Golf Association. The inaugural event was held in 1980 and it has been played annually since. ...

(representing Spain): 2019, 2021 *

(representing Spain):

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeyp ...

2023 Events Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1927 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ** Croatia will adopt the eu ...

(winners) *

Arnold Palmer Cup The Arnold Palmer Cup is an annual team golf competition for college/university golfers. From 2018 it has been contested between a United States team and an International team representing the rest of the world. The teams consist of 12 men and 12 ...

(representing the International team):

(winners),

Source:

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ballester, Jose Luis Spanish male golfers Arizona State Sun Devils men's golfers People from Castellón de la Plana Sportspeople from the Province of Castellón 2003 births Living people 21st-century Spanish people