Remembering the Great Roberto De Vicenzo

Post by Sports Writer Derek Clements

Roberto de Vicenzo, who won The Open in 1967 but is best remembered for losing The Masters the following year, has died at the age of 94. He was one of golf's good guys and he will be sorely missed.

The Argentina Golf Association, which confirmed his death, said the 1967 Open champion broke his hip last month at his home in Buenos Aires and had been in deteriorating health since then. 

Born on April 14, 1923, in Villa Ballester in Greater Buenos Aires, De Vicenzo was one of eight children whose father Elias wanted him to follow in his footsteps as a house painter. However, after becoming a caddie at a local club at the age of six, De Vicenzo became fascinated with the game – fishing balls out of ponds to practice – and turned professional at the age of 15.

De Vicenzo worked hard on his game and routinely hit 400 balls a day in practice, while on the course itself he believed in a measured pace.

“If you hurry, then nothing seems to go right,” he said. 

Six years after turning professional, De Vicenzo won the Argentine Open for the first time, one of more than an astonishing 230 professional victories he accumulated in a 58-year career, most of them in Argentina and elsewhere in South America.

The most famous of those victories came in the 1967 Open at Royal Liverpool, where a third round of 67 gave him a two-shot lead over Gary Player, with defending champion Jack Nicklaus a shot further back.

A closing 70 ensured De Vicenzo beat Nicklaus, the Argentinian carding a crucial birdie on the par-five 16th – now the 18th – courtesy of a superb 3-wood over the corner of the out-of-bounds to the heart of the green.

Some great images from the late Roberto De Vicenzo's victory in #TheOpen 1967 pic.twitter.com/MYnJz4puqY

— Royal Liverpool Golf (@RLGCHoylake) June 3, 2017

De Vicenzo, who was runner-up to Bobby Locke 17 years earlier and had recorded seven other top-six finishes, became the oldest winner of the title since Old Tom Morris exactly 100 years before him.

‘‘For years I came over trying so hard to win. This year I simply came back to see my friends,” De Vicenzo said after claiming the first prize of £2,100, exactly the same amount on offer for last place when the Open eventually returned to Hoylake in 2006.

While Tiger Woods won £720,000 in 2006, De Vicenzo earned around £80,000 a year during his peak, with the lucrative senior tour not starting until he was 57, when he won the inaugural US Senior Open.

But he knew that he was in a privileged position and was happy to dig into his own pockets to help other golfers from Argentina. He paid for Eduardo Romero to join the European Tour and helped to support him until Romero started winning enough prize money to make his own way. He also helped many others, including Angel Cabrera, winner of The Masters and US Open.

“I catch everything, como se dice, the horse by the tail,” he joked. “But I have something.”

De Vicenzo should also have had at least the chance to win a green jacket given to Masters champions, if not for a scorecard error in the final round in 1968.

On his 45th birthday, De Vicenzo was greeted with a chorus of Happy Birthday on the first tee at Augusta National and proceeded to hole out for an eagle on the opening hole. Birdies at the second and third turned a two-shot deficit to Player into a two-shot lead and De Vicenzo picked up further shots on the eighth, 12th, 15th and 17th before a bogey on the last resulted in a 65 and seemingly an 18-hole play-off on Monday with Bob Goalby.

However, disgusted by his closing bogey, De Vicenzo signed his card and failed to notice that playing partner Tommy Aaron had credited him with a four on the 17th, instead of a birdie three.

The higher score had to stand and meant Goalby was declared the winner, prompting De Vicenzo’s famous quote: “What a stupid I am.”

Goalby admitted he felt sorry for De Vicenzo, but the Argentinian remarkably turned the situation on its head. “Goalby is the victim of what happened,” De Vicenzo said. “I’m sorry for what happened. He does not get the respect of the people. Not for him. It’s my fault. He did not have anything to do with it.”

Years later, De Vicenzo wrote in his autobiography: “I have a feeling the 1968 Masters hasn’t yet finished. When Bob Goalby and I meet in heaven, we are going to end this duel that has been left unfinished here on Earth.”