[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12255-12256]
[From the U.S. 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.

[[Page 12256]]


  Mr. HUNTER. I thank the gentleman.

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