Dublin, Ohio …
Fellow Open Champion Jack Nicklaus has paid special tribute to the late Roberto de Vicenzo, who passed away Thursday aged 94.
The Argentina Golf Association confirmed his passing on its website and indicating de Vicenzo had broke his hip last month at his home in suburban Buenos Aires, and his health had been deteriorating ever since.
The Argentinean-born de Vicenzo, who was the oldest-living Open Champion, defeated Nicklaus by two strokes in 1967 at Royal Liverpool.
At the time in winning at Hoylake de Vicenzo and aged 44 and became the second oldest winner of The Open after Old Tom Morris who was 46 in winning in 1867.
De Vicenzo had began his Open career in brilliant manner finishing T3rd on debut in 1948 and then 3rd the next year before being runner-up in 1950 but had been in ill-health for some time and died at home close to his long-beloved Ranelagh Golf Club, and where he had first learnt the game as a caddy.
“When somebody passes it’s a sad thing”, said Nicklaus, and just a day after honouring another Open Champion in Greg Norman as the 2017 Memorial Inductee.
“Roberto de Vicenzo was not only a great golfer, but he was a great friend. I think the last time I was with Roberto we were in Argentina, and it was only about three or four years ago, I think. And we were with him and he always talked about how he said, I’m stupid, because what he did at the Masters that one year.
Robert de Vicenzo with Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson at the 2005 Open.
“He still talked about it, 40 years later he still talked about it. He was a nice man, nice player.
“We had only one time that we came down the stretch playing against each other, which I guess was the British Open in ’67, I believe. That hole I ended up losing to him. I think he birdied 17 and I did not birdie 17. And then I didn’t birdie 18. I think I may have bogeyed 18.
“But I don’t really know what to say except that I think he represented his country. He represented the game of golf. He was one of the really good guys”.
Nicklaus recalled the first time he set eyes on de Vicenzo and that was in Nicklaus’ first U.S. Open in 1957 in Toledo, Ohio, and when Nicklaus was just 17 years of age while de Vicenzo, and then aged 34, was contesting the third of just five U.S. Open appearances but also securing his best finish in the event that year of T8th.
“I remember going out and after I missed the cut I went out on the — I think it was the 15th hole at Inverness”, said Nicklaus.
“I remember crawling on my hands and knees up through people to watch de Vicenzo take his 3-wood, bang it on the ground, put the ball on, and drive off. He was playing Peter Thomson that day. So that was my first time —
Fatiha meets Roberto De Vincenzo at the 2010 Open
“He was a strong, strong, good player. I think he was an instinctive player. He played with his feel. He just played by feel. And he was strong. He was very long for those days. But I just remember we played not a lot but we probably played — I probably played with him, I suppose, a dozen times. And we played a few tournaments. We played a few practice rounds. And I just always enjoyed his company. He was a nice man, and you always miss nice guy.”
De Vicenzo last attended The Open in 2010 at St. Andrews but it was at the 2005 Open that Nicklaus recalls last meeting de Vicenzo at an Open Championship.
“I think the last time I saw Roberto was in 2005, in St. Andrews,” he said. “The last time I saw Roberto was in Argentina. That was probably the — the last time I was in Argentina, was that three or four years ago? Maybe five years ago, last time I was down there.
“He was a god in Argentina. I mean they — Roberto was Mr. Golf in Argentina, no question about that. Every place you go people would say, “Roberto, he’s coming, he wants to see you today. He was here last week and he played the golf course.” He really loved it. He was very, very, very well thought of and liked and respected in Argentina, no question, and around the world of golf”.
