( CNN ) -- The man who paved the way for Seve Ballesteros to become one of the greatest golfers in history , Ramon Sota , has died at the age of 74 . Sota was not just the uncle and mentor of Ballesteros but a pioneer of the Spanish game during the 1960s and 1970s . Born on April 23 , 1938 , in Pedrena , Sota was one of the first Spanish golfers to compete on the tour alongside the Miguel brothers , Angel and Sebastian . At the age of just 18 , Sota won the first of his four Spanish championships before going on to win several other tournaments . Sota triumphed at the Open de France in 1965 , the Dutch Open in 1966 and 1971 , the Open de Portugal in 1963 , 1969 and 1970 , the Italian Open in 1971 and the Spanish Open in 1963 . He also won the Brazilian Open in 1965 , while finishing sixth at the Masters at Augusta in the same year , which was the best result by a European player at the time . After retiring in 1972 , Sota helped coach Ballesteros to land five major victories during an illustrious career . Ballesteros , who died at the age of 54 in May 2011 , was the first European to win the U.S. Masters when he picked up the first of his two Green Jackets in 1980 . He also won three British Open titles under the guidance of Sota . Javier Ballesteros takes first steps to emulating legendary dad Seve . Tributes poured in for Sota on Twitter with Spanish golfer Pablo Larrazabal leading the way . Larrazabal tweeted : `` Ramon Sota won the French Open in 1965 , 43 years before I did ... Good memories from those afternoons seating at the putting green in PedreÃ±a listening many of those historys ... Ramon Sota , thanks for all . '' There was also a tribute from the Royal Spanish Golf Federation on their official website . `` The members of the Royal Spanish Golf Federation would like to express their deepest condolences to family and friends , '' the federation said in a statement . Sota 's son Jose Antonio says his father 's philosophy was `` work , fight , recovery '' and `` he had a competitive spirit and knew how to recover from a bad day '' .
Ramon Sota has passed away at the age of 74 . One of the first Spanish players to taste success on the tour . The Spaniard was a key member of Spain's Davis Cup team in 1974 and won three titles with them, including two Grand Slam titles. Tributes to Sota flood in from the golfing community .