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  • Roberto De Vicenzo

Roberto De Vicenzo

Hometown
Buenos Aires
Argentina
Year Inducted
1989
Inducted Category
Competitor
Birthdate
Apr 14,1923
Date Deceased
Jun 01,2017
Major Championships: 1
  • Open Championship: 1967
Senior Majors: 2
  • Senior PGA Championship: 1974
  • U.S. Senior Open: 1980
Additional PGA TOUR Wins: 6
  • 1951: Palm Beach Round Robin, Inverness Invitational Four-Ball
  • 1957: Colonial National Invitational, All-American Open
  • 1966: Dallas Open Invitational
  • 1968: Houston Champions International
European Tour Wins: 9
  • 1948: North British Tournament
  • 1950: Belgian Open, Dutch Open, Open de France
  • 1960: Open de France
  • 1964: Open de France, German Open
  • 1966: Spanish Open
  • 1967: The Open Championship
Argentina Tour Wins: 131
  • 1942: Abierto del Litoral
  • 1943: Center Open, Westinhouse Grand Prix
  • 1944: Argentine PGA Championship, Argentine Open, Cirio Grand Prix
  • 1945: Argentine PGA Championship, Cirio Grand Prix, Bahía Blanca Open
  • 1946: Palermo Grand Prix, Abierto del Litoral, South Open, La Plata Open, Masllorens Grand Prix
  • 1947: Argentine PGA Championship, Abierto del Litoral, South Open, Cirio Grand Prix, Ranelagh Open, Masllorens Grand Prix, Alvear Grand Prix, San Isidro Open, Mailly Grand Prix, America Cup
  • 1948: Argentine PGA Championship, Cirio Grand Prix, Masllorens Grand Prix, Ranelagh Open, La Plata Open
  • 1949: Argentine PGA Championship, Argentine Open, Abierto del Litoral, Ituzaingo Grand Prix, Masllorens Grand Prix, San Isidro Open
  • 1950: Masllorens Grand Prix, Ituzaingo Grand Prix, San Isidro Open, San Martin Grand Prix
  • 1951: Argentine PGA Championship, Argentine Open, Masllorens Grand Prix, Alvear Grand Prix, San Isidro Open
  • 1952: Argentine Open, San Isidro Open
  • 1953: Argentino Grand Prix
  • 1954: Alvear Grand Prix, San Martin Grand Prix
  • 1958: Argentine Open
  • 1960: Argentine PGA Championship, Charles Of the Ritz Grand Prix, Siam Grand Prix
  • 1961: Ranelagh Open
  • 1962: Argentine Masters, North Open, Center Open, South Open, Branca Grand Prix, Suixtill Grand Prix
  • 1963: Branca Grand Prix, Tortugas Grand Prix
  • 1964: Argentine Masters, Argentine PGA Championship, Minerva Grand Prix, Jockey Club Rosario Open
  • 1965: Argentine PGA Championship, Argentine Open, Center Open, Rio Cuarto Open, Acantilados Grand Prix, Jockey Club Rosario Open
  • 1966: Argentine Masters, Argentine PGA Championship, North Open, Ranser Grand Prix
  • 1967: Argentine Open, Center Open, South Open, Ranelagh Open, Ranser Grand Prix, Pindapoy Grand Prix
  • 1968: Abierto del Litoral, Ranelagh Open, Acantilados Grand Prix, Peugeot Grand Prix
  • 1969: Argentine PGA Championship, Norpatagonico Open, Ranelagh Open, Glustora Grand Prix, Lomas Open, Kanmar Grand Prix
  • 1970: Argentine Open, Argentine Masters, Ranelagh Open, Old Smugler Grand Prix
  • 1971: Argentine PGA Championship, Acantilados Grand Prix, La Cumbre Open, Pinamar Open, Santa Teresita Open
  • 1972: Argentine PGA Championship, Center Open, South Open, Ranelagh Open, Acantilados Grand Prix
  • 1973: Center Open, South Open, North Open, Lomas Open
  • 1974: Argentine PGA Championship, Argentine Masters, Argentine Open, Center Open, North Open, San Martin Grand Prix, Charles of the Ritz Grand Prix
  • 1975: Jockey Club Rosario Open, Charles of the Ritz Grand Prix
  • 1976: Velox Grand Prix, Metropolitano Open
  • 1977: Argentine PGA Championship, South Open, Velox Grand Prix
  • 1978: South Open, San Martin Grand Prix, Sidesa Grand Prix
  • 1979: Acantilados Grand Prix, Sidesa Grand Prix
  • 1983: North Open
  • 1985: Argentine PGA Championship
South American Wins: 62
  • 1946: Chile Open, Viña del Mar Open
  • 1947: Cali Open
  • 1948: Uruguay Open
  • 1949: Uruguay Open
  • 1951: Cali Open, Bogota Open, Barranquilla Open, Mexican Open
  • 1952: Panama Open, Santo Domingo Open
  • 1953: Panama Open, Mexican Open, Peru Open
  • 1954: Brazil Open, Peru Open, Barranquilla Open, Bogota Open
  • 1955: Mexican Open, PGA of Mexico, Jamaica Open, Medellin Open
  • 1956: Jamaica Open, Barranquilla Open, Bogota Open, PGA of Mexico
  • 1957: Brazil Open, Jamaica Open
  • 1958: Peru Open, Medellin Open, PGA of Mexico
  • 1959: PGA of Mexico
  • 1960: Brazil Open, Barranquilla Open, Bogota Open
  • 1961: Chile Open, Colombian Open, Barranquilla Open
  • 1962: Barranquilla Open
  • 1963: Brazil Open
  • 1964: Brazil Open, Uruguay Open, Bogota Open
  • 1965: Lagartos Grand Prix
  • 1966: Lagartos Grand Prix
  • 1968: Lagartos Grand Prix
  • 1969: PGA of Mexico, Lagartos Grand Prix
  • 1970: Itanhanga Open
  • 1971: Panama Open
  • 1972: Venezuela Open, San Pablo Open, Rio Grande Open
  • 1973: Panama Open, Venezuela Open, Brazil Open
  • 1974: Panama Open, Lagartos Grand Prix, Raleigh Cup
  • 1978: Santiago Open
  • 1979: Santo Tome Open, Oro Negro Open
Additional Wins: 20
  • 1953: Canada Cup
  • 1962: Canada Cup
  • 1970: World Cup
  • 1974: PGA Seniors’ Championship, World Senior Match Play
  • 1979: Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf
  • 1983: Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf, Doug Sanders Classic
  • 1984: Merrill Lynch/Golf Digest Commemorative Pro-Am
  • 1986: Commemorative Pro-Am
  • 1987: Argentine Senior Open, Ponte Vedra Classic, Digital Classic
  • 1988: Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf – Legendary Division, Vintage Championship Invitational, Pages Classic
  • 1989: Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf – Legendary Division, Vantage Championship
  • 1991: Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf – Legendary Division
  • 1992: Center Senior Argentine Open
Awards & Honors
  • Bob Jones Award: 1970
  • PGA of America Hall of Fame: 1979
  • The Memorial Tournament Honoree: 1986

The world will always remember Roberto De Vicenzo not for what he won, but for what he lost – for that careless mistake he made at the 1968 Masters, signing an incorrect scorecard that had him making a par and not a birdie on the 17th hole that Sunday afternoon – and, thus, his uttering of the immortal golf quote, “What a stupid I am.”

Yet there is so much more to De Vicenzo’s career and the contributions he made to golf around the world than what occurred in the scorer’s tent at Augusta National that should not overshadow the man’s legacy. Roberto De Vicenzo won more than 230 golf tournaments, including the 1967 Open Championship at Hoylake, where he held off the Sunday charges of Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player.

“If you hurry, then nothing seems to go right.”

Facing success and catastrophe and treating those twin imposters the same inspired British golf writer Peter Dobereiner to use the Rudyard Kipling quote when giving De Vicenzo his due. In Dobereiner’s words, “By that standard, De Vicenzo is a giant of a man because he faced the greatest triumph and the most devastating disaster which the game of golf can provide.” The United States Golf Association and the Golf Writers Association of America agreed, presenting De Vicenzo with the Bob Jones and William Richardson Awards, respectively, in 1970.

All the trophies he captured didn’t mean as much to De Vicenzo as the friends he made traveling the globe. He won national opens in Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Holland, France, Germany, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Spain, Uruguay, Venezuela and Argentina, a country he represented 17 times in the World Cup. Essayist Jack Whitaker once said that if golf were war, Roberto would have conquered more countries than Alexander the Great. But golf was not war to De Vicenzo. And that is what made him so loved.

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on April 14, 1923, De Vicenzo learned the game as a caddy’s assistant. He turned professional at age 15 and won his first of nine Argentine Open titles six years later. Three-time Open Championship winner Henry Cotton once said there were very few professionals in the business who would not take the play through the green of Argentine golfing master Roberto De Vicenzo, and his game never left him. At 51 he won the PGA Seniors’ Championship and in 1980, at age 57, the inaugural U.S. Senior Open.

Fact

Roberto De Vicenzo has finished in the top five in 490 tournaments.

He believed in hard practice, routinely hitting 400 balls a day and maintaining a slow pace. “If you hurry,” he would say, “then nothing seems to go right.” He’d visualize a shot, pick a club and hit. His method was simple to watch, and it held up under pressure.

It did that final round at the Masters in 1968. What’s lost behind that staggering mistake made by fellow competitor Tommy Aaron and signed for by De Vicenzo is that Roberto shot what has been called one of the greatest rounds in major championship history. He took only 65 strokes around Augusta National that day, including a bogey at the 18th, on his 45th birthday. His 31 on the front side started with an eagle 2 at the first and tied the course record. It should have been good enough to tie Bob Goalby and set up a playoff which, had he won, would have given Roberto De Vicenzo both the Open Championship and Masters titles at the same time.

Roberto De Vincenzo was originally inducted in Pinehurst.

 

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