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. My way was fair- he shocked the national golf world Stewart Alexander (who’d elimi- ways and greens. Keep it straight, when he knocked off “Greatest nated Bean), 1-up, when Alexander keep it safe and capitalize on as Game Ever Played” Francis holed a long putt on the 18th many birdie putts as possible.” Ouimet in the first round of the green. It was an incredible per- The two great fairways and U.S. Amateur at Merion Golf Club. formance by the Red Run Golf greens proponents met in a round Kocsis nailed his second giant Club super senior. at Red Run and Kocsis shot 32 on of the game when he was 18. He When I think of Kocsis I think the front to Nelson’s 34. Nelson defeated 1927 U.S. Open and 1931 of the title of a John Wayne movie, put his arm around Kocsis as they British Open champion Tommy The Quiet Man. Or an advertising went to the 10th tee and said “No Armour in the 1931 Michigan line, The Quiet Assassin. As well amateur’s going to beat me.” Open playoff, the first of his three as being Michigan’s greatest golfer Kocsis responded with a 34 back Michigan Open titles. he also was Michigan’s Most nine for 66. Nelson shot 30 for 64. He played on Walker Cup teams Unassuming Champion. Bob McMasters joined the Red in three different decades, 1938, Actually, he was something of a Run caddie ranks in 1943 and 1949 and 1957, was low amateur boring golfer. He wasn’t a Tiger started caddying for Kocsis in the in the 1934 and 1937 U.S. Opens Woods or Phil Mickelson, hitting late 1940s. and competed in nine Masters tour- shots out of the woods. Or Seve “He won the Michigan Open in M I C H I G A N G O L F E R M A G A Z I N E • S U M M E R 2 0 0 6 3 1945 and he was a legend,” said McMasters who grew up to become one of Kocsis’s closest friends. “But he’d play with any- body at the club, choppers and good players. “He won the club invitational 10 times and no time did he have a partner who was better than a 10 handicap. I did like to caddie for ty the guests in the invitational – fer they usually were big tippers. t McCaf “Chuck was thrifty, he wasn’t a Ar big tipper and caddies were think- ing about buying cars and taking Photo by out girls and they were looking Bill Shelton, Chuck Kocsis and Jack Berry for big tips. But I liked caddying in the Michigan Golfer Television Studio for him. It was easy. He’d hit 15, whole way, just for the kick of it. Kocsis kept playing, though, 16 greens and never asked what “I’m mad he didn’t play senior right up to the end and was a lunch club to use. He wasn’t really com- golf,” said Glenn Johnson, five- regular at Pine Trace and Red Run. municative. You followed the three time Michigan Amateur champion McMasters frequently got him to rules of caddying: show up, keep and a Michigan Golf Hall of Fame play at top courses out of town. up and shut up. member as is Kocsis. “He had such “Charlie was quiet if there were “I was getting into playing and an amazing record that he could’ve more than six people around but if watching him was like getting a les- won a lot more in senior golf and it was just a few of you he’d regale son, especially bunker shots. He’d there are a lot of stroke play tour- you with stories. One time we get his shag bag and we’d go out to naments. were set to go to Columbus and 16 as long as no one was there and “I beat Chuck twice in team play Muirfield Village. The weath- every shot was around the cup. It events. Bill Prew and I were part- er seemed iffy but I called Clayton was easy to pick them up.” ners and Chuck was playing a 27- Hoskins, a director of the Western Red Run’s roster was filled with handicapper. I was just getting Golf Association (McMasters is a low handicappers and it was into golf and he looked at me on past WGA president), and he said known for big money games but the first tee and I think he ‘C’mon, we don’t baby this McMasters said Kocsis never thought he’d give me a lesson. course.’ We got there and it said played for money although others He birdied the first five holes. Course Closed. I told the pro I’d bet on him. But we combined for eight under brought my friend Chuck Kocsis Red Run members, including par and they were seven under, and we were told you don’t baby Kocsis, started the 72-hole all on Kocsis birdies. the course. The pro said ‘We don’t. Michigan Medal Play tournament “The other time he was playing But Jack Nicklaus just called and in the late 1950s. Kocsis entered with Jimmy Nick who hadn’t done said ‘Close it.’ six times. He won each time and a thing all day but he holed a big “Just then a guy sitting in a some grumbled why bother to birdie on 17 and they were cele- chair said “I know that name enter if Kocsis was going to win brating. But then I holed a 20-foot- (Kocsis). It was Phil Rodgers all the time. er on top of him and we eventually who’d been working with Nicklaus But Kocsis didn’t play a lot of won on the first extra hole. on his short game. Chuck and organized senior golf. He won the “I was second to him in the Rodgers talked for an hour,” International Seniors at Michigan Medal Play at Western – McMasters said. Gleneagles, Scotland, three times he won by eight shots,” Johnson The Quiet Man’s record spoke and once used the same ball the said, laughing. volumes. MG 5 S P R I N G 2 0 0 6 • M I C H I G A N G O L F E R M A G A Z I N E.