Chuck Kocsis –
ChuckChuck KocsisKocsis –– TheThe BestBest ThereThere EverEver WWasas By Jack Berry Looking back over Chuck Kocsis’s career, his record is staggering. Sure, we knew he was regarded as naments. He was runnerup to Ballesteros, hitting from the car the greatest golfer in Michigan histo- Harvie Ward in the 1956 U.S. park. Or Arnold Palmer, slashing ry and the Golf Association of Amateur. and crashing. Michigan affirmed that by naming And he was 60 years old when Chuck played a game unfamil- him Golfer of the Century. And he decided to enter the 1973 iar to most folks, and one we’d sell Kocsis, who died May 30 at the age United States Amateur at the our souls for — fairways and of 93, played just about the entire Inverness Club in Toledo. Sixty. In greens, like a metronome. century. a championship dominated by col- Interestingly, Byron Nelson, Not only did Kocsis win more legiate stars on their way to the relating the tale of his 11 straight than anyone, he did it over the PGA Tour. Gary Koch, Bill victories in 1945, wrote “I had greatest span. He was 17 in 1930 Kratzert, Danny Edwards, Andy people tell me it was boring to when he crushed three-time cham- Bean, John Fought and Craig watch me play…people get tired of pion James D. Standish Jr., 9 and Stadler were in the field. that. They want to see you hit it in 7, in the 36-hole final for the first But Kocsis, who didn’t really the woods, a bunker or water, and of his record six Michigan like match play, won his first two then knock it out and make bunch- Amateur championships and then matches, 4-2 and 6-4, and lost to es of birdies.
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