Loran Smith: Reflections on the Open from Olympic

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June 16, 2012

Loran Smith: Reflections on the Open from Olympic

The Dalton Daily Citizen Sat Jun 16, 2012, 08:41 PM EDT

SAN FRANCISCO — The United States Open — the national golf championship — feels different at Olympic.

First of all, it is October cool, with the refreshing breezes off the Pacific a constant. Then there are the windswept cypress trees, which can clutch golf balls like a spider’s web snaring a June bug.

Technological advances allow for big screen video displays at outdoor pavilions and decks — you can watch the competition wherever you are on this unforgiving golf course, where the rough seems to be in anger, not awe, of the world’s best golfers as they make their way around the 7,170-yard course. Never has beauty been more intimidating.

History suggests there is a sinister influence here, akin to an exorcist casting a spell. Olympic has spit in the eye of two of golf’s gods — namely, Ben Hogan and Arnold Palmer.

Instead, it anointed the anti-heroes, a journeyman pro named Jack Fleck in 1955 and the accomplished Billy Casper who, in 1966, would deny Arnold Palmer an Open title in the King’s prime. What a dastardly circumstance for Arnie’s Army, which was out in full force!

Hogan has gone on to that great clubhouse in the sky and Palmer is taking in the action via television at his home in Latrobe, Pa., but Fleck and Casper are here: Fleck, lucid and spry at age 90, the oldest living U.S. Open champion, and Casper, 10 years Fleck’s junior but with the same resolve to thumb his nose at Father Time.

Casper has often been referred to as the most underrated PGA Tour player in history, having been active during the time of the sport’s “Big Three,” otherwise known as Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Gary Player. From 1964 to 1970, Casper won 27 tour events, which was two more than Nicklaus and six more than Palmer and Player combined.

Superagent Mark McCormack represented the Big Three at the same time during one point in the 1960s, which may explain why it wasn’t the Big Four. Casper spent most of Open week at Olympic autographing his book, “The Big Three and Me.” Palmer, Nicklaus, and Player contributed a foreword to the book, and all agree that that the era should have been known as the time of “The Big Four.”

Now living in Utah, Casper’s book is full of statistics that confirm he is indeed the most underrated star in Tour history. Inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1978, Casper holds the record for the most points scored by a U.S. player in Ryder Cup competition, 23.5.

Winner of 68 professional tournaments, Casper is perhaps best known for his putting ability. Sitting in the interview room at the media center and reminiscing about his career, he admitted to having a gifted touch. However, one of the fundamentals of his putting success, he said, was practicing putting in the dark.

When he was a kid learning the game in San Diego, he would putt for nickels and dimes with fellow caddies at a local golf course until nightfall and walk through the golf course on the way home. He would stop along the way and putt on the greens in the dark, a practice that enhanced his feel and touch.

With a rare ability to read the greens, Billy’s short game brought him remarkable success and was a factor in his winning the Masters in 1970 and two U.S. Opens — at Winged Foot in 1959 and here at Olympic in 1966.

At Olympic, Casper began the last nine holes of the tournament seven strokes behind Palmer but watched Palmer’s game collapse. The tournament ended in a tie after the final 18 holes, with Casper taking the title in a Monday playoff, 69 to Palmer’s 73.

Ecstasy for the underdog and agony for the favorite seem to be an Olympic tradition.

Loran Smith is a contributing columnist for The Daily Citizen. You can write to him at loransmith@sports.uga.edu.

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