The final looked like a throwback U.S. Amateur final. Kent was decked out in Iowa gear, and Ballester wore his college and national colors. In the day and age of NIL and branding, it could have been a final from the late 1990s and not 2024. 

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In the end, Ballester conquered the crowd and Kent to become not just the first Spaniard but also the first golfer from continental Europe to win the Havermayer Trophy. 

Before 2024, Sergio Garcia was the closest a Spaniard had come to winning the U.S. Amateur. In 1998, as an 18-year-old he reached the semi-finals. 

Ballester’s connection to Garcia goes beyond the record books. 

He grew up in Castellón, Spain, a coastal city in the Valencian Community. There, he began playing golf, primarily at Club de Campo del Mediterráneo, where Garcia also grew up playing. 

Ballester hasn’t just walked in the footsteps of Sergio Garcia, and he’s been embraced by the family. That connection is part of the reason why Ballester has reached this point of his golf journey. Sergio Garcia’s dad, Victor Garcia, is Ballester’s swing coach. He is also the swing coach of 2025 ANWA champion Carla Bernat Escuder. Sergio Garcia has served as a mentor, offering advice and encouragement along the way. They even spoke the night before the U.S. Amateur championship. Garcia has competed in a Ryder Cup at Hazeltine in 2016 and helped Ballester mentally prepare for a partisan crowd. 

Those aren’t the only successful athletes Ballester has had in his life. He grew up with two Olympian parents. Ballester’s father, José Luis Ballester Tuliesa, was a swimmer who specialized in the butterfly. He never won a medal but qualified for the 1988, 1992, and 1996 Olympics. His mother, Sonia Barrio, was part of three Olympic field hockey teams. She won a gold medal on home soil in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. 

“From the first time you see Jose, you're like, ‘Okay, there's a guy that kind of knows what he's doing,’” ASU Men’s Coach Matt Thurmond said. “I don't want to say he trained for this or was raised for this, but it's just very comfortable being a good athlete.”

Thurmond first saw Ballester play golf as a 16-year-old in the Czech Republic. 

“Watching him walk around he was physically may not have been way bigger than everybody else, but looked like he was way bigger than everybody else because of his presence and just his confidence and sense of himself,” Thurmond said. 

That tournament in the Czech Republic was canceled due to rain with two holes remaining, and Ballester finished in second place. 

The winner?

His teammate, Michael Mjaaseth.

Even all these years later, it leads to some good-spirited ribbing on the team van because Mjaaseth gets the claim for his entire life as the champion of the European Young Masters.

When he arrived at Arizona State, teammates gave Ballester the “Silverback Gorilla” emoji—his presence in the locker room and reputation as a stellar junior demanded it, even if his game wasn’t quite there yet.

However, Ballester wasn’t quite the Silver Back on the golf course in his early years at ASU. Having grown up in a household with Olympians, he had a routine and structure. Thurmond noticed he would do whatever he was told. A good teammate and a coachable player.

“He needed to find his own will and independence,” Thurmond said.  “if he was left to his own devices, he wasn't sure what to do or if he would do it.”

This can be said about a lot of college freshmen. The freedom can be crippling. Endless choices lead to no choices being made at all. 

Thurmond stepped back, keeping an eye on his Silver Back Gorilla but allowing him to figure things out.

It took a bad stretch of golf in his sophomore year for Ballester to realize he might need some guidance. 

I remember after the tournament (The Floridian) he looked at me at the lunch table, and said, ‘I'm, I'm done with this. I'm, I'm tired of sucking, I'm tired of sucking. And will you help me?’” 

From then on, things were different.

“It’s rare that there's a moment that you can point to as a single turning point, but from that moment on, he's been a different, completely different person,” Thurlow said.

Ballester was named to All-American teams in his first three years at ASU and has enjoyed great success in amateur events. The Masters will not be his first major championship. He played in the 2023 Open Championship after winning the European Amateur Championship in Estonia. 

His national and college pride is likely to shine through at Augusta National, just like it did at the U.S. Amateur, where he wore a hat he bought in the college bookstore that was streaked with sweat and pride. 

Ballester could cash in, but instead, he’s choosing to look like an amateur and display where he has come from instead of where he hopes to go.

Those professional dreams are close enough to touch for Ballester right now. He’s in the hunt for the top spot in PGA Tour U, he’s played in two professional events this winter, and he’s gearing up to win a national title in his senior year. 

Toss in a trip to Augusta National and the preparation for that exam, and Ballester has a lot on his plate. 

He’s been fortunate enough to make two trips to Augusta, once with ASU coach Thomas Sutton and again with his caddie. One would have to imagine a round with the 2019 champion, Garcia, is in the books for the week of The Masters. 

While the workload is massive right now, Ballester’s fall season has Thurmond optimistic about how he’ll play at The Masters.

I've coached a lot of guys that hit this big moment in their career, and it almost always shakes them a little bit, and there's a little bit of dip afterward. It’s like they're not quite ready for it, and they need to drop back now and build back up and get comfortable with it.”

This is not how Ballester responded after winning the U.S. Amateur. 

“With Jose, it was the most amazing thing. When he won that US amateur, it wasn't like he entered some new territory that he was uncomfortable with,” Thurmond said. 

Instead, Ballester finished T2 in the season-opening  Sahalee Players Championship and then won the Fighting Illini Invitational - his first collegiate title. 

“It was like he could be himself after the U.S. Amateur,” Thurmond said. 

Over the course of his week at Augusta National, Ballester is going to learn even more about himself.

As Ballester steps onto the first tee at Augusta, he’s not just playing for himself—he’s continuing a Spanish tradition that began with Seve, flourished with Olazábal, and was reignited by Rahm. He just might be the next name on that list.