Al Barow

A Golden Jubilee

Tuesday, June 16, 2009 11:52 am (Eastern)

By Al Barkow

About 30 miles from Bethpage is Winged Foot Golf Club, which was the site of Billy Casper's win 50 years ago. Al Barkow looks at Casper's win and a aspect of greater significance from that U.S. Open, the start of knocking down the race barrier.

Photo: © Billy Casper Mangement Billy Casper

Fifty years ago Billy Casper won the U.S. Open and kicked off a career that has never been recognized for how superior a player he was. At that Open, in 1959, Ben Hogan more or less set the tone for the disregard of Casper’s achievements. Hogan was paired with Casper in an early round, in which Hogan did his usual thing—greens and fairways and some decent putting (he opened with a 69 to tie for the lead)—as did Casper—missed some fairways and greens but got up and down regularly with fine pitching and chipping, and especially outstanding putting (he had a first round 71, followed by a 68 and 69 to Hogan’s 71-71). After the round Hogan told Casper that if he couldn’t putt he’d of shot 80.” Or words to that effect. There is no record of Casper’s response, except that he kept up his excellent putting and won the ’59 Open by a shot over another terrific putter, the late Bob Rosburg. Hogan, who never liked putting and hardly ever discussed it except to say its value should be reduced, finished tied for eighth with Sam Snead.

Photo: © USGA Billy Casper win the 1959 & '66 U.S. Open

It may well have been that if Casper couldn’t putt he’d of shot 80, but he could and didn’t. And just as it was the case that Hogan couldn’t have been too bad a putter and paid some attention to it to win all that he won, so Casper couldn’t have been that bad a ball-striker to produce his competitive record. His basic shot pattern in his heyday was a power-fade, not unlike Hogan’s, and with it Casper won 51 times on the PGA Tour, including a second U.S. Open, in 1966, when he defeated Arnold Palmer in a playoff, and a Masters. What’s more, between 1964 and 1970 he won 27 times, which was more than Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, and Gary Player did during that same time frame.

So why didn’t Casper get the recognition he clearly deserved? In part because he was caught in the vortex of the charismatic Palmer and the mesmerizing power golf and will to win of Nicklaus. And also because, ironically enough, Casper decided to pattern his on-course demeanor after the man who had demeaned him at Winged Foot in ’59. Casper told me once that Hogan was his idol and that he wanted to emulate his stoic, unsmiling manner when out there on the field of play.

Too bad. He buried a personality that might have thrust him right up there in the charisma derby. I got to know Casper when helping him write an instruction book, and discovered that as a kid growing up around San Diego he had been a pool shark/hustler with a quick wit and the sharp tongue to go with it. He also popped a few beers here and there, and may well have had a couple or three casual liaisons with the opposite sex. He wasn’t a bad looking fellow, and wasn’t the way overweight person he later became. He did acknowledge that he had also altered his persona when, at his wife’s beckoning, he turned to Mormonism. The religion put him on a path to a more temperate life-style, by which he said he gained his success on the tour. But the Hogan mystique was no small factor in how he ended up being perceived by the public. Indeed, years later he allowed that he wished he hadn’t been so Hoganized, that in so doing or being he was not as popular as he might have been.

Although Casper had won six tournaments on the Tour between 1956 and 1958, his 1959 U.S. Open victory was his coming out; the Open tends to have that effect. But that championship had another aspect to it of greater social significance, and one that carries an especially poignant note into this year’s event in light of who is the odds-on favorite to win it—Tiger Woods.

Photo: © Scott Halleran/Getty Images Charlie Sifford helped break the color barrier in golf.

In 1959, at Winged Foot, Charlie Sifford finished tied for 32nd on rounds of 78-72-73-76. It was the highest finish by a black African-American in the Open since John Shippen tied for 5th in the 1896 U.S. Open. On merit Sifford’s scores weren’t too impressive. But that is beside the point. The far more noteworthy thing was that Sifford teed it up in the national championship in the first place. His doing so marked an important progressive step forward in both American golf and the country’s advance toward racial equality.

The last African-American to play 72 holes in the U.S. Open before 1959 was Ted Rhodes, who did it in 1948 at the Riviera CC. Rhodes was a beautiful golfer with a classic form and a creamy rhythm. He got off to a good start, with one-under par 70, but ended near the bottom of the pack, a tie for 51st. His final finish could be expected, for unlike Sifford Rhodes had very little experience playing against the best players in the game and on such a demanding course. He played in the years when the PGA of America, which ran the tour in those days, had a membership requirement that allowed only Caucasians to join. And, you had to be a member to play the tour. Sifford, on the other hand, had been playing most of the previously all-white circuit since 1953, thanks to the ground-breaking insurgency of Bill Spiller and Joe Louis, who were instrumental in starting the process of opening the tour to one and all. At first Sifford did not venture into the south to play the tour events there, but by 1959 he played the whole circuit.

It wasn’t that the USGA had any restrictions against blacks playing in its events, but the Association didn’t go out of its way to make it easy. Almost all qualifying rounds for the Open were held at private clubs, very few of which would allow blacks to play on their courses. We’re talking the 1930s through most of the 1950s. The USGA might have held some qualifiers at quality public courses, but it didn’t. I remember asking Joe Dey, Jr., who was executive secretary of the USGA for many years, about blacks being kept out of competition with white players, and he huffed, “Well, why not, they had a tour of their own.” Truth be told, the same exclusionary problem might have arisen at public courses as well, but more effort all around would surely have advanced the issue. Rhodes, by way, qualified in California. One of his rounds was at the Los Angeles Country Club, a very exclusive whites-only club at the time (and perhaps still) but one deeply immersed in golf’s history and egalitarian spirit.

Sifford played a major role in breaking the race barrier, mainly in being the first good player to get out there and weather the brutal, ignorant barbs of racists. He continued to play in U.S. Opens after his ’59 appearance. He played in seven, all told, his best showing when he tied for 21st in 1972. Others followed his lead. There was Lee Elder, who made the cut in six U.S. Opens, with a tie for 11th his best outing. And, Pete Brown (’69), Nate Starks (’75, ’78), Bobby Stroble (’76), and Jim Dent (’77, ’80). Calvin Peete, the most accomplished African-American golfer before Tiger Woods, would make the best effort in the U.S. Open among blacks prior to Woods, finishing in a tie for 4th in 1983.

Oddly, there will only be one black player at Bethpage this week. Somehow or other, the success of Sifford, Elder, Peete, and particularly Woods has not inspired enough African-Americans to get seriously into golf. Nevertheless, the opportunity is there

1 comment
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Bill Shamleffer --- Jun 17th, 2009 08:11 am

As usual another great piece of writing about some of the history of golf being forgotten by the masses. Thank you Mr. Barkow for keeping this history alive. Although it is correct that Tiger is unfortunately the only Africa-American in this U.S., there is another black contestant, James Kamte from South Africa. He even got to play a practice round with Mr. Woods this week.