Columnist Victoria Sun: Veteran PGA player Casper has passion for golf, family

Victoria Sun

Wednesday, April 25, 2001 | 9:48 a.m.

Victoria Sun's golf column appears Wednesday. Reach her at 259-4078 or by e-mail at victoria@lasvegassun.com.

The success of one of the best golfers in history can be traced not to his swing, but to his big heart.

Billy Casper plays golf the way he lives his life -- with a lot of feeling and emotion.

Based on his results, maybe he's onto something.

Casper has won 51 PGA Tour titles including two U.S. Opens and the Masters, and nine Senior Tour titles. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1982 and the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1978.

The five-time Vardon Trophy winner didn't get this good by practicing with a world-renowned swing coach or by spilling his guts to a sports psychologist. He did it on his own.

"My dad started me when I was 4 1/2 on the cow pastures of New Mexico," Casper said Tuesday at the Callaway Golf Center.

On a cow pasture, and not at some plush country club?

"I've teed off on many a cow pie," he said sheepishly.

Casper, 69, was in town to promote the Giant Golf Academy with which he has signed a multi-year endorsement contract.

He answered questions from golf fans during an instructional clinic while entertaining them with anecdotes about the game and his own life.

The self-taught golfer looked like a natural instructor, but insisted the last time he gave any lessons was in the 1950s.

"From 1951 to 1955 I was in the Navy and I had the opportunity to work with the enlisted men and their dependents," Casper said. "Most of that time it was connected with special services and golf. I played on golf teams at each installation I was at.

"They had me working in and around the golf courses and the driving ranges to help the morale of the servicemen and their wives. It was a very, very enjoyable time."

After he got out of the Navy, Casper turned professional.

The first tournament he played in was the Western Open in Portland, Ore., which he went on to win four times.

Casper shook his head and smiled when he recounted that the first paycheck he earned came at the Western Open in the amount of $33.33.

"I had won $18,000 and I was 12th money winner on the tour," Casper said. "Isn't that crazy?

"I won two tournaments the next year, had $20,000 and was the ninth money winner. In 1958, it was the first year commercial sponsors came in and I won four tournaments for $41,000 which was a big deal."

By 1968, Casper became the first player in history to win more than $200,000 in a year -- amazing considering Casper said he has had only five real golf lessons in his life.

"Growing up, I did everything myself and how I thought it should be done," Casper said. "I just went by the way it felt.

"I had tremendous hand-eye coordination. It was the way that I felt I should swing the golf club and play the game."

Casper and his wife, Shirley, had five children and adopted six more. The couple married when Casper was 21 and Shirley was 17.

"We had our first child two and a half years later, so we started developing a family and I got totally engrossed in the important things, my family and my career," Casper said. "We just decided we wanted more children. We had three and thought that was a good number.

"And then we adopted six. My wife was told by three doctors she couldn't have children again, then after 15 years we had two more."

Four years ago he started Billy's Kids, the Billy Casper Youth Foundation, that has donated more than $1.5 million to youth in his hometown of Chula Vista, Calif.

His face lights up when he talks about his own family and the sons and daughters he has loved from the moment they were brought into the Casper house. Understandably, there is an anguished look when the subject of one his adopted sons, David, is brought up.

David will be sentenced soon in San Diego for a series of crimes including robbery, and could face a prison term totaling more than 200 years.

As much love as Casper has for David, he may not be present in court not because he would like to avoid the media crush. Casper has a heavy heart for his son because he is extremely passionate about his family, just like he is about golf.

For Casper, to live any other way would be no way to live at all.

Lee is ranked No. 17 in the country and No. 1 in the class of 2001, while Pak is ranked 40th in the country and in the top 10 of the class of 2001. Mabanta, a student at Xavier College Prep in Phoenix, the same school that produced Grace Park, has finished in the top 10 of several national events and is ranked 49th in the country. Olivarri is considered one of the top juniors out of Texas.

"I'm really happy to have the opportunity to play in my hometown," said Borcherts, an Oregon State transfer. "I really think we're going to be one of the top 10 teams in three to five years.

"Teams from Arizona and California always have the best teams because they are places people want to go, they have great weather and great courses. We have all those things too and after talking with Kelly, I think it's cool that they hired someone young who has gone through the same experiences that we have in college."