Billy Casper was up there with the golfing greats

Golf lost a true gentleman last weekend with the passing of Billy Casper.

Billy was unfortunate to be around at the same time as Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, but believe me, he was a great player.

He didn’t have the same profile as the others because he didn’t travel round the world too much. He also never won The Open so he is less well-remembered over here.

But he was a killer golfer as a record of 51 PGA Tour wins including three Majors and picking up the Vardon Trophy for the lowest scoring average five times tells us. He hit so few bad shots and he was a great putter all his life.

Nicklaus said that Casper was the one name he kept an eye out for on the leaderboard. That’s because he knew Billy wouldn’t choke down the stretch.

The most famous example was at the 1966 US Open when Palmer had a seven-shot lead with nine to play. Arnie was trying to set the biggest-ever winning margin and went for broke. But he made a couple of mistakes and before he knew it, Billy had caught him.

Then in the Monday play-off, Billy was too consistent and won by four strokes. That wasn’t a surprise as Billy was a great matchplayer.

He has won the most points of any American in the Ryder Cup with 23.5, and he was never on a losing side. His record would have been even better, too, if it wasn’t for the fact that I beat him three times!

I’m rightly proud of those wins.

In 1971 at Old Warson in St Louis, I teamed up with Scottish player Harry Bannerman to beat Billy and Miller Barber in the Foursomes, before partnering Peter Oosterhuis to success over Billy and Lee Trevino in the Fourballs.

Two years later, at Muirfield, I again beat Billy and Lee on the final green, this time alongside Brian Barnes in the foursomes.

Billy was a lovely, modest guy. He was so laid back and he loved going home to wife Shirley and his family of five children, six adopted children and then 71 grandchildren and great grandchildren .

I bumped into him at the Ryder Cup at Medinah in 2012, when Billy was already in his 80s and we walked together through crowds of people.

Not one single person stopped to ask him for an autograph. Billy wouldn’t have been bothered but I was sad for him. He was one of America’s greats and he deserved that recognition.