Gifted pro won seven PGA Tour titles despite battling mental illness
By Patrick Hand
On Sunday, June 5, 1966, Eugene Cernan stepped out of the Gemini 9A spacecraft orbiting the Earth. Strapped to his back was a Buck Rogers-like space pack. For the first time, an astronaut would travel in space outside of a capsule and untethered. Unfortunately, Cernan encountered complications, and his helmet visor fogged. Unable to see, he had to return to the capsule without accomplishing that part of the mission.
On Earth, 168 miles below, millions watched the drama unfold on television, among them Bert Yancey, a 27-year-old PGA Tour professional. Six weeks earlier, Yancey had won the Azalea Open in Wilmington, North Carolina, a small-purse PGA Tour event held opposite the Tournament of Champions. Although the Azalea had a modest field, it was his first win and proved he could compartmentalize his mental-health issues – issues about which few were aware – to play at a high level.
Now, though, Yancey was watching the spacewalk in his room at a Ramada Inn in Memphis when he was supposed to be at the Colonial Country Club for the final round of the Memphis Open, featuring luminaries such as Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, and Gary Player. Yancey had matched the course record with a first-round 63, and he trailed Gene Littler by one going into the last round.
Entranced by the spacewalk, Yancey was oblivious to his 11:20 a.m. tee time. As it drew close, tour officials contemplated sending out Bruce Devlin and Dale Douglass as a twosome without him. Tour caddie Roy Stone knew where Yancey was lodging. At 11:05 a.m. Stone called the hotel and told him he had 15 minutes to get to the first tee or be disqualified. Yancey, aghast, sprung into action and sped to the course.
With his sprint from the club parking lot to the first tee serving as his only warm-up, Yancey shot 66 to beat Littler by five strokes. “I was never so frightened,” Yancey said after the round. “I just knew I had blown the whole works.” Years later, he said momentous news events could trigger his episodes – mental demons the severity of which went unknown for years.
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