[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 96 (Wednesday, June 11, 2008)]
[House]
[Page H5301]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
U.S. OPEN BEGINS PLAY TOMORROW
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from California (Mr. Hunter) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, I want to let all of my colleagues know
that, as most of them already do, that tomorrow is the United States
Open, the great U.S. Open, the great tradition in golf competition. And
it is going to be held at Torrey Pines in San Diego.
I thought this might be an appropriate time to pay tribute to those
great golfers who have come to the San Diego area, and especially to
talk about the dean of golf in San Diego, that great champion who won
two U.S. opens, Billy Casper. We have had a number of great champions
out of San Diego.
Madam Speaker, there is a line that connects Billy Casper and Phil
Mickelson, who is one of the top contenders. He is going to be playing
tomorrow. He is a great U.S. Open competitor who has been runner-up
four times. He said the other day, I think it was on the Golf Channel,
that he loves the U.S. Open. So far the U.S. Open hasn't loved him. But
he follows a succession of great golfers out of San Diego.
We had ``Gene the Machine,'' Gene Littler, who won the U.S. Open in
1961; the great Mickey Wright, possibly the greatest woman golfer of
all time, who won, I believe, four LPGA championships; Craig Stadler,
who while he didn't win the U.S. Open, won the Masters; the great Paul
Runyan, ``Little Poison,'' who at one point, even though he was
outdriven about 100 yards on every drive by Sam Snead at the PGA
Championships back in the thirties beat the Great Snead 8 and 7 by
being so good around the greens; and of course the great Scott Simpson
who won the U.S. Open in 1987. And that leads me to the guy who won the
U.S. Open two times, really the dean of golf in San Diego, California,
the great Billy Casper.
Madam Speaker, people don't understand how great Billy Casper was and
is. He won 51 professional tournaments. During the heyday of the big
three, that was Palmer, Player and Nicklaus, that period between 1964
and 1970 when those three golfers were winning a combined 35 victories,
Billy Casper by himself was winning 23 victories, more than Palmer or
Player combined and three more than Jack Nicklaus. In fact, I think it
was the great Jack Nicklaus who said at one point that it should have
been the big four.
Billy Casper is a guy who had the greatest Ryder Cup record in the
history of American golfers and the best come-from-behind win in a U.S.
Open championship in our history. And let me tell you just a little bit
about that. It was 1966 at Olympic Golf Course in San Francisco. Billy
Casper walked up to the tee on the last nine, the back nine of the last
18 holes of the last day of the U.S. Open. He walked up to the tee
seven shots behind the great Arnold Palmer in his prime. And after he
had finished that nine holes, he had shot a 32, he had tied Palmer who
was only three over par on the back nine, and with a seven-shot lead,
you ought to be able to win the U.S. Olympic with the 37 on the last
nine. But he tied him, caught him by seven strokes in the last nine
holes. And the next day, the great Billy Casper won the playoff against
Arnold Palmer with a 69. That is the great Billy Casper, one of the
great Americans of all time, one of the great athletes and golfers of
all time, and our dean of golf in San Diego.
I want to recognize my friend, Danny Burton who, while he is very
modest, is a great athlete. He was the high school champion in Indiana,
a guy we have all looked up to and a guy who also has some memories of
his own about some of these U.S. Open champions.
I would like to yield to my friend from Indiana.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. I thank the gentleman for taking the time to
do this. I wish everybody that is interested in golf were paying
attention tonight because you're mentioning some really great players
from San Diego. There must be something in the water out there.
But Scott Simpson is a friend of mine. I have had the opportunity to
play with Scott a few times. And he is probably one of the nicest
people I have ever met in golf. He is a very good Christian man. He is
an outstanding golfer. He doesn't know the meaning of ``quit.'' And he
won the U.S. Open as well. And he is one of those guys from San Diego
that you as a San Diegoan, I guess that is how you say it, ought to be
very proud of.
Billy Casper and Phil Mickelson, Scott Simpson and Gene Littler, a
great bunch of guys and a great bunch of golfers; Phil Mickelson, I
have had the pleasure of playing with him as well. I will tell you, he
is going to win the Open one of these days because he has the ability,
and he is the caliber of man to get the job done. I know he has had a
few flukes here in the past. He has won the Masters twice. And I
predict Phil will win the U.S. Open before too long.
Mr. HUNTER. Let me ask my friend, Dan Burton, a lot of people have
criticized Phil Mickelson because he is kind of a go-for-broke player.
And they often say, as in some of the shots that he took in some of the
closing holes in some of the majors, that Phil Mickelson didn't play
the odds, that he didn't hit the safe shot. He went for the go-for-
broke shot. And in some cases, it didn't work out. I kind of like that.
Because that is really what we go to the golf course to see.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. The people that criticize Mickelson probably
can't even carry his shoes. He has won two Masters. He is the number
two golfer in the world right now. He is tough in every tournament. So
when people say something bad about Mickelson, they had better take a
good look at themselves, especially if they are a golfer.
Mr. HUNTER. I thank the gentleman. And I will just say that it is a
great day for Billy Casper, a great day for Phil Mickelson tomorrow,
and a great day for the U.S. Open and all of our past champions.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Tomorrow is the beginning of the best and
greatest golf tournament in the world.
Mr. HUNTER. I thank the gentleman.
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