Billy Casper, Hall of Fame golfer who won three majors, dies at 83 - Washington Post

Billy Casper, one of professional golf’s top players for two decades and winner of three major U. S. tournaments, died Feb. The cause was a heart attack, according to a statement from Billy Casper Golf, the course- management firm he co-founded. In any other era, Mr. Casper might have commanded more attention than he did, but he was overshadowed by the “Big Three” who dominated golf through the height of his career: Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player. Renowned for his steady shot-making and masterful putting, Mr. Casper won the U. S. Open in 1959 and 1966 and the Masters in 1970. His 51 PGA victories put him seventh on the all-time list of winners of the Professional Golfers’ Association of... He was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1978. Mr. Casper’s comeback win at the 1966 U. S. Open was especially storied. In an 18-hole playoff the next day, Mr. Casper came from behind again to beat Palmer by four strokes. Casper kept a lower profile than Palmer, Nicklaus and Player, but his win totals and reputation on the tour were in the same league as theirs. In a combined forward to Mr. Casper’s 2012 autobiography, “The Big Three and Me,” Palmer, Nicklaus and Player wrote that “there was another player who was winning as often as we were, a player we kept an eye on and worried about just as much, if... Source: www.washingtonpost.com