A Billy Casper Golf Story - by veteran PGA Tour Player John "The Golf Genius" Toepel
I was playing in an exhibition with Billy Casper in 1969 at a course in Kenosha, WI. Billy was at the top of his game and I was invited to play because I had won the Wisconsin State Open. He was amazing. He had never seen the course before and had to ask where the holes went and what to aim at. All his drives went where he was told to aim. All his shots went where they were supposed to go.
On the back nine, he hit an iron to an elevated green. The pin was cut to the left part of the green and his iron shot was a little long. His ball ended up in a bunker beyond the green. I got to Billy's ball just before he did and the shot he was faced with made me shutter. He had a downhill lie in the bunker, the lip of the bunker he had to get over was about five feet high, the pin was cut close to the edge of the green just beyond the lip of the bunker and the green was sloping away from him quite strongly. Not a pretty picture.
Billy is a very fast player and before I could finish my comment to myself about the shot, he jumped into the bunker, waggled and hit the prettiest bunker shot. It just cleared the lip of the bunker, and had so much backspin that it skidded to a stop just inches from the pin. I thought, "WOW" but said, "Nice shot."
A few years later when I was playing on the PGA Tour and had gotten to know Billy, I asked him about that shot. He paused for a few minutes and said he really had no recollection of that shot. I mumbled something and changed the subject.
That whole story has always interested me. I thought the shot was something special. It was so ordinary to Billy that it never even made it to his memory bank. He really was one of the best for a while. He never lost a tournament he could win.
JohnToepel, Jr. is a Veteran PGA TourPlayer, a
professional golf instructor, author and professional
speaker. Your success is his passion. He is
the discoverer of Concept Golf, the first principles-based golf instruction system. It is the fastest way to long lastingimprovements to your golf game. To
learn more about Concept Golf, including the most
comprehensive golf instruction system ever created, The
Concept Golf Perfect ShotMaking System, please visit
http://www.conceptgolf.com and Discover the Par Golfer
in You.
About The Author:
