Posted 2:18 am Saturday, September 04, 2010
Texas Golf Legend Recalls Special 55
TROUP -- Be honest, most of us wannabe golfers have shot a 55 for nine holes. We may not like to admit it, but it's true if we're counting every stroke.
GOLF LEGENDS Homero Blancas (left) and Jacky Cupit talk on the 14th tee Friday at Hilltop Country Club in Troup.
In August of 1962, at the former Premier golf course in Longview, a 24-year-old University of Houston graduate experienced one of those 55s -- and it too came on nine holes. The one major difference, of course, was that Homero Blancas played those same nine holes twice as he recorded what is still considered the lowest competitive round in golf history.
The 55 was recorded into the Guinness Book of World Records but later removed because the length of the course -- only 5,200 yards -- fell below USGA regulations.
Blancas, who went on to a successful career on the PGA Tour, had a reunion of sorts Friday morning at Hilltop Country Club in Troup -- reminiscing about the old East Texas amateur golf circuit.
The 72-year-old Blancas played a friendly 14-hole best-ball match with contemporaries Roy Pace, Jacky Cupit, Bob Rawlins and A.J. Triggs.
Longview natives Cupit and Pace also played on the PGA Tour, and I was told that Rawlins at one time was the oldest man to ever qualify for the Champions Tour. Triggs, from Tyler, carved out a tremendous amateur career and is a past president of the Texas Golf Association.
The reunion of the Texas golf legends from yesteryear was put together by local pro Rick Maxey as a kickoff to this weekend's 61st Annual Labor Day Invitational at Hilltop. The tournament has a beefed-up professional field that will play 54 holes ending on Labor Day.
Blancas and his crew aren't competing in the tournament, and most likely they would have a tough time keeping up with the young guns. But those same pros can only hope to one day achieve even a fraction of the success enjoyed by Blancas, Cupit and Pace -- all winners on the PGA Tour.
"A lot of these fellows here cut their teeth on tournaments just like Troup, Briarwood, Center, Kilgore, Palestine and Athens," Maxey told the Troup High School golf team. Then, Maxey said the biggest amateur tournament back in the day was the Premier Invitational in Longview, a unique layout next to Premier Oil refinery.
Premier was closed soon after Blancas made history with the 55, winning the tournament by five strokes. His greatest memories of the round are of his final two holes of the four-round event.
"The biggest one was on 17, my 71st hole. I hit a 5-iron, I guess we had about 185 yards," Blancas said. "I didn't hit it too well and I had a 45-foot putt. As soon as I hit it, I knew it was too hard. It hit the back of the cup and I thought I saw the ball two or three inches above the hole -- and it fell in.
"The last shot that I hit, I had a four-footer for birdie on 18. It was straight in, uphill into the grain. The only way you could miss it was to leave it short. So I hit it as hard as I could and the ball barely got to the hole. So that's how (nervous) I was. I didn't think I was that tight but I was. Everybody said I looked kind of cool … they kept saying you've got the tournament won by five or six shots. All you have to do is finish. Theoretically, there was no pressure other than the 55."
Blancas, a Houston native, finished the round with 13 birdies and one eagle, shooting 27 on the front nine and 28 on the back.
Blancas said the Premier course was special, and No. 7 was especially fun to play with three oil tanks in play.
"The whole deal is (if) you miss a fairway you're out of bounds, either right, left or over the green," he said. "Every hole had an out of bounds except one."
Blancas, who outdueled Lee Trevino to win the 1970 Colonial in Fort Worth, stressed to the Troup HS golfers the importance of practicing your short game. Watching him Friday -- bad knees and a bad back have robbed Blancas of his former swing, but his short game is still sweet.
"You drive for show and putt for dough," he said. "Sixty percent of your time on the golf course should be spent around the putting green and chipping area. Learn how to putt on slow greens, fast greens, grainy greens. The more you chip the better putter you become.
"To shoot low you have to putt well. If you don't putt well, I don't care who you are you're not going to win too many tournaments."
