Justin Rose has revealed what having an image of Seve Ballesteros on the bag will mean for Europe's players - and himself in particular - at this week's Ryder Cup in Chicago.

While captain Jose Maria Olazabal would not confirm strong indications on Monday that his team plan to wear the navy jumper, trousers and white shirt so associated with Ballesteros in Sunday's singles, an iconic silhouette of the five-time major winner is on their golf bags at Medinah.

The image recreates Ballesteros's most famous pose, a clenched-fist salute to the crowd after holing the winning putt in the 1984 Open Championship at St Andrews.

Ballesteros himself used the symbol for his own company and had it tattooed on his left arm, while many players thought it should become the logo of the European Tour after his death in May last year following a long battle with cancer.

Ballesteros captained Europe to victory in his native Spain in 1997 after playing in the biennial contest eight times, famously forming a formidable partnership with Olazabal.

And Rose, who won three of his four matches on his sole previous appearance in the defeat at Valhalla in 2008, has plenty of fond memories of Ballesteros to draw upon this week.

''I did get to know Seve well,'' Rose told a press conference ahead of yesterday's practice rounds. "He was one of the few guys when I was struggling on tour when I first turned pro [Rose missed 21 cuts in succession] to put his arm around me in a sense, more metaphorically, but just to give me some words of encouragement.

''I remember my first Masters, actually, he just said well done because my first Masters was a breakthrough for me. I had turned pro and gone through some struggles and then having achieved some success to get there. He was just really nice and complimentary.

''There's some video footage somewhere of me chatting to him and my mom meeting him and you can see my mom blushing and stuff.

''Seve was definitely a special character."