Casper's peers would put him in their Top 10

Billy Casper has never received the credit he's deserved as one of the greatest golfers who ever lived.

Giving Casper love will be the theme next Tuesday at East Bay Golf Course when the Provo Open pays tribute to Casper, a former winner of the event.

On Tuesday, Casper will play a round during the annual sponsors tournament at East Bay, the first event planned in a Provo Open week presented by Gold's Gym and The mtn.

Back in 1980, some dozen years after he was atop the golf world, Casper stopped in Provo to "find his game" by entering the local Provo Open.

Casper chipped in on both the 35th and 36th holes to defeat BYU star Barry Willardson by two shots to win the 41st Open. A few weeks later, Casper won the Tri-city Open and "jump-started" his Senior Tour game, winning several more times on the veteran circuit.

"I began to think I was on a roll, and those two wins really got me geared up for the tour again," Casper told Fairways Magazine.

"I don't know why I played in the Provo Open that year; it was just one of those things. I lived in Mapleton, and it was a chance to get some confidence and my swing back, break old habits and go for it again."

Sonny Braun, the veteran head professional at Hobble Creek, was a budding course professional at that canyon course in Springville when Casper came from seven shots down to tie Arnold Palmer in the 1966 U.S. Open. Braun vividly remembers Casper defeating Arnie the next day in an 18-hole playoff.

That win by Casper rocked Palmer, and the superstar never recovered. That remarkable victory is remembered more for Palmer's collapse than Casper's exceptional skill.

"He has never received the credit he deserves as one of the best players ever," Braun said. "I'd list him among the top 10 players who ever played the game."

Casper, inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1978, won 51 PGA tour titles. He was the first golfer to earn more than $200,000 in a season and did so when Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player were household names, in the prime of their careers.

"He was an outstanding putter and had a great short game around the greens," said Braun.

It was Casper's putting that catapulted him atop the golf world, one of the most successful Ryder Cup performers in U.S. history.

"Billy has the greatest pair of hands God ever gave a human being," NBC golf analyst Johnny Miller once said of Casper.