[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 10158]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        RECOGNIZING BILLY CASPER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Hunter) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to rise today to talk about an 
American hero, a hero from San Diego, California, Billy Casper, one of 
the great athletes to ever stride the greens and fairways of America's 
golf courses and compete in national and international tournaments with 
a great successful record, but also one of the greatest family men and 
greatest husbands, greatest father, greatest grandfathers who ever had 
a family in San Diego or helped a community or did all of the great 
things that Billy Casper has done.
  I have got my friend, Mr. Issa, to talk with me a little bit about 
Billy Casper. But Billy Casper was a great golfer. And he is 
celebrating, we are celebrating here, his first victory which was the 
LaBatt Open in Canada. I think he was 22 years old at the time.
  I think he had at that time had married Shirley, who was his high 
school sweetheart from Chula Vista, and he followed that victory, the 
LaBatt Open, with some 50 more PGA professional victories, including 
two U.S. Opens and a Masters.
  You know, people once said, Mr. Speaker, I know you coming from Long 
Beach, and then ultimately the entire State of California as our former 
Attorney General, you knew about Billy Casper, because he was a guy who 
was called by Johnny Miller, as the guy who had the greatest set of 
hands in golf, meaning one of the greatest touches.
  He had what I think is the most memorable come-from-behind victory in 
the history of major golf in 1966, when he demonstrated those great 
hands when he was 7 shots behind the great Arnold Palmer in the closing 
9 holes of the U.S. Open, 1966, playing at Olympic Country Club in San 
Francisco, and Billy Casper closed out with a 32 on the back 9 at 
Olympic, which is nearly miraculous.
  He tied Arnold Palmer and he beat him the next day in a playoff with 
a 69. Now, they had The Big Three of Golf, Mr. Speaker. It was called 
Player, Palmer and Nicklaus. They needed the Big Three because between 
1964 and 1970, they needed all three of their tournament victories 
added together to have more than Billy Casper because he had 4 more 
victories during that period than the great Jack Nicklaus, and he had 
more victories than Arnie and Gary Player together.
  It is neat to be here with Mr. Issa from San Diego and talk about 
this American hero, this San Diego sports hero, Billy Casper.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Issa).
  Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I know you join with Mr. Hunter and myself in 
recognizing the importance of California, and particularly San Diego as 
the golf club production and design capital of America. But a club is 
just what it sounds like unless you put it in the hands of somebody 
like Billy Casper, somebody who can do what Duncan Hunter cannot do, 
and I guarantee I cannot do with a club and that is make it send a ball 
straight and true or hook it if you need to hook it to make that 
special shot. Billy Casper had that talent, used that talent and was a 
great ambassador for our country here and around the world. I think it 
is very appropriate that we honor him here on the floor of the House 
tonight.
  Mr. HUNTER. I thank Mr. Issa for his contribution here, because Billy 
Casper has not only touched the hearts or touch the minds and memories 
of lots of sports writers and people who read those sports pages when 
he was amassing those 51 professional victories, but he touched the 
hearts of so many young people. And he and Shirley, his wonderful wife, 
have hearts as big as the 18th green at San Diego Country Club, and 
they have touched the lives of literally thousands and thousands of 
young people through the scholarship funds that they put together, 
through all the help they put together through Billy's annual 
tournament.
  If you walk up to Billy Casper on the golf course, here is a guy who 
won a couple U.S. Opens and the Masters and a guy who lives in this era 
where sports idols charge money for their autographs. Billy Casper will 
stop what he is doing, he will look you in the eye, and if you are a 
young person he will really pay a lot of attention to you. He and 
Shirley are absolutely the greatest examples of what families should be 
like in this country. So it is neat to be here with my great colleague 
Darryl Issa and talk a little bit about this American hero, Billy 
Casper.

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