Argentina Cries For Roberto

Argentina has lost a legend.  Roberto De Vicenzo, the country’s greatest golfer and arguably one of the greatest golfers of all time, has passed away at the age of 94.  De Vicenzo won the most professional golf tournaments ever, and by a large margin:

1.  Roberto De Vicenzo                       230 wins

2.  Gary Player                                  165 wins

3,  Masashi “Jumbo” Ozaki                 111 wins

De Vicenzo won tournaments all over the globe, as did Player.  Ozaki won 110 tournaments in Japan, one in New Zealand, the New Zealand PGA Championship in 1972.

De Vicenzo was the first Argentinean to win the British Open, winning  at Hoylake in 1967.  He also won the first United States Senior Open.  He remains the only South American to win the British Open in its 145 years of competition. 

But he is most famous for  a clerical error which may have cost him the Masters title in 1968, and resulted in the greatest sports quote of all time.

As  The Guardian tells the story:

The perils of signing [a scorecard]for an incorrect total were demonstrated by the Argentinian golfer Roberto De Vicenzo, on one of the biggest golfing stages of all – the Masters at Augusta in the US – who thereby lost the best chance he ever had of winning it. De Vicenzo, who has died aged 94, experienced his misfortune on the event’s final day in 1968. Having made a birdie at the par-four 17th to put himself in contention with the American Bob Goalby, he finished the round on 65 – seven under par – and waited for Goalby to finish. Goalby arrived with a 66, tying the two of them in first place on a four-round total of 277 and setting up a play-off for the title.

That, at least, was how it seemed. But De Vicenzo’s playing partner, Tommy Aaron, who was responsible for marking the Argentinian’s scorecard, had mistakenly recorded a four at the 17th instead of a three. He then failed to notice his error even as he added up the total at the end of the round and handed the card over for verification. Distracted by the declamatory hullabaloo of the crowd and media, De Vicenzo gave the score only a cursory glance before scrawling his signature against it.

The officials were a degree more attentive, and when the card arrived in their hands they quickly confirmed that De Vicenzo had signed for a higher total than he had actually registered. Although everyone in the golfing world knew his real score, the rules state that if you sign for a higher total, then the higher total has to stand. De Vicenzo therefore finished one shot behind Goalby, blowing his chance of a play-off and handing the American the title.

When notified of his mistake, a crestfallen De Vicenzo famously cried out, in English: “What a stupid I am!” His anguish was justified: he was by then 45 years of age and he never came close to winning the Masters again. But his plight attracted a worldwide outpouring of sympathy and affection, heightened by his measured and sporting reaction. De Vicenzo’s name thereafter became synonymous both with sporting bad luck and with dignity in bitter defeat…

A wise and compassionate man, De Vicenzo remained sanguine about his Masters debacle, but beneath the surface the events of that final day in 1968 still rankled. At one point a group of sympathetic fellow players had a Masters green jacket specially made with De Vicenzo’s name sewn into the lining, and presented it to him as if he had been the winner. Although he was touched by the gesture he could never bring himself to wear the garment.

So, Argentina mourns one of its greatest sports heroes, and the golf world should too.  As great and famous as his “What a stupid I am” is, De Vicenzo should be remembered for his WGHOF status and his all- time accomplishments, a record, Like Jack’s, that will never be broken.  So, despite the admonishment of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, his beloved home country should shed more than a few tears (with apologies to Maradona and Angel Cabrera) for its greatest sports hero.

AMDG

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