Rivals lead tributes to late Casper
SAN DIEGO: Billy Casper, one of the most prolific winners on the PGA Tour who was overshadowed at the height of his career by the ‘Big Three’, died of a heart attack on Saturday at his home in Utah. He was 83.
Bob Casper said his father died quickly and peacefully with wife Shirley at his bedside. They had been married 62 years.
Casper passed out in the clubhouse at the Masters last year, had work on his heart and recovered from a bout of pneumonia over Thanksgiving that kept him hospitalised for a month. His son said Casper was going to cardio rehab for the last four months and was doing well until he started to feel badly in the last week.
In any other era, Casper might have commanded more attention than he did.
“I think it is fair to say that Billy was probably underrated by those who didn’t play against him,’’ Jack Nicklaus said on Saturday night. “Those who did compete against him knew how special he was.’’
Casper won 51 times on the PGA Tour, putting him at No.7 on the career list behind only Sam Snead, Tiger Woods, Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer and Byron Nelson.
His three major championships include the 1966 US Open, one of golf’s most remarkable comebacks. He rallied from a seven-shot deficit on the back nine at Olympic Club to tie Palmer, and beat him in an 18-hole play-off.
Casper also won the 1959 US Open at Winged Foot and the 1970 Masters. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1978.
He was overshadowed by Palmer, Nicklaus and Gary Player, whose rivalry sparked a revival in golf in that era.