{{ubiquityData.prevArticle.description}}
{{ubiquityData.nextArticle.description}}
Buddy Alexander recently and vividly recalled a conversation he had with Bill Rogers. The scene was the Inverness Club outside of Toledo, just before the start of the 1973 U.S. Amateur Championship. Rogers and Alexander had just finished a practice round with Gary Koch and Marty West. The four were sitting on their golf bags when a short gentleman wearing shorts walked by, tufts of white hair sticking out of his Ben Hogan style cap.
“Somebody is going to get to play that old man,” said Rogers, who would win the Open Championship in 1981, to the 20-year-old Alexander, “and you have to play Andy Bean.” They were part of a field that included many young golfers on their way to pro stardom, such as Bean, Koch, Craig Stadler (who would win at Inverness), Curtis Strange, Peter Jacobsen, Jay Haas and Billy Kratzert. Alexander would win the 1986 U.S. Amateur and later coach the University of Florida golf team to two NCAA titles.
The next day, Alexander upset Bean – a future 11-time winner on the PGA Tour – in his first-round match. A couple of days later, Alexander got to play “that old man,” 60-year-old Chuck Kocsis (pronounced KO-sis).
By this stage of his life, that old man had already built a résumé on folks misjudging his non-threatening appearance. A résumé that still includes being officially considered the youngest player to ever win a professional tour event at age 18. A résumé that included NCAA team and individual titles. A résumé that included playing in Walker Cups in three different decades. A résumé that included 11 Masters tournament appearances (and a few more invitations that he declined). A résumé that had him named “Golfer of the 20th Century” in Michigan. A résumé that included beating the likes of Francis Ouimet and Tommy Armour; rounds with boxer Joe Louis; dinner with gangster Al Capone; meetings with six U.S. Presidents and aviation icon Charles Lindberg. A résumé that included surviving grave injuries from a car crash and coming back to keep winning golf tournaments four years before his idol Ben Hogan did the same thing.
CLICK HERE TO READ THIS UNLOCKED STORY AT GGP+SigN Up Today and support premium golf journalism for just $1 a week