Dave Hill Roasts Fellow Pros
Hill gives blunt assessments of his fellow pros in book
Join us for our journey through the past to celebrate the PGA TOUR returning to Mexico for the Worldwide Technology Championship this week. The tournament will be held at El Cardonal at Diamante, a course designed by Tiger Woods and his design firm, TGR Design. The course is located in Los Cabos. We travel back to 1977 when Billy Casper won the Mexican Open at Club de Golf Chiluca. It was his last win before he began competing as a senior in 1982. Be sure to check out the Bonus Story on Dave Hill’s blunt assessments of his fellow pros.
We’ve written about Mexico and Mexican golfers in the past including Victor Regalato who was looking to become the second pro from Mexico to win on the PGA TOUR at the 1974 Pleasant Valley Classic HERE. You can learn about the 1966 Mexican Open won by Bob McCallister HERE, and how Lee Trevino added another national championship, the 1973 Mexican Open HERE. Finally, explore how Tony Lema won the 1962 Mexican Open HERE and Ben Crenshaw winning the Mexican Open in 1981 HERE.
The PGA TOUR had a week off but we still have some news items for you. Scroll down as I provide a few of my thoughts on the news as well as the Clips You Might Have Missed.
We’ve got a question for you to weigh in on with the Tour Backspin Poll. This week’s Music Clip has Neil Young and Crazy Horse doing “Like a Hurricane” live in 1977. Tour Backspin Goes to The Movies, has the 1977 theatrical trailer for “Annie Hall.” Scroll down to listen and watch.
The Swing Like a Pro features Billy Casper’s swing in slow motion. Watch his right foot action and tell me who it reminds you of. The WHAT HOLE IS IT? Presented by Rota Golf this week has a hole you should be able to identify. Submit your answer and you may just win a golf swag prize pack which includes our new 19th Hole Hot Sauce (soon to be available online in the Tour Backspin Golf Shop). Rota Golf has a cool way to map out your bucket list journey of playing the top 100 courses in the U.S. that you should check out. Click on the Rota Ad to view more. We’ve got some links for you in the Check it Out section and an ad from 1977 that uses the 18th hole at Pebble Beach to sell some booze is featured in this week’s Vintage Ad. Scroll down to view.
The Tour Backspin Poll
It looks like the fans of chocolate and peanut butter together ruled Halloween as Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups topped our poll last week when we asked what you were handing out, or eating yourself. The popular peanut butter cups topped the poll with 50% while 17% preferred M&Ms and 33% were handing out something else.
The PGA TOUR has some significant changes in store for 2026 (scroll down to learn the details). One of the changes is to shrink field sizes to make it easier to complete rounds. Is this the right approach? Let us know in this week’s Tour Backspin Poll.
We’re playing PGA TOUR History Trivia in this week’s Tour Backspin Quiz. Scroll down to play.
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Enjoy!
Larry Baush
Casper Wins In Mexico For First Title in Two Years
The July 1977 issue of Golf Digest featured an excerpt from a book written by Dave Hill and Nick Seitz, the editor of the magazine. The book was titled “Teed Off” and features a chapter where Hill evaluates his competition on the PGA TOUR. In true Dave Hill fashion, he gives his candid opinions of the stars of the day including George Archer, Ben Crenshaw, Lee Elder, Ray Floyd, Al Geiberger, and many others. One of the others was Billy Casper and Hill was particularly critical of the state of Casper’s game.
“He stopped winning, got fat, and quickly went from being barely noticed to being unnoticed.”
Casper, who had last won a tour event in 1975 at the First NBC New Orleans Open. Before that, he won twice in 1973, in Hartford and the Western Open. But it had been a while since Casper was the force on tour he once was. He finished the 1976 tour with official earnings of $47,931, which placed him in the 59th position on the money list.
In the book, Hill wrote about Casper and his game:
Unfortunately, a falling star. For years I considered Casper the most underrated player on the tour. When Palmer and Player and Nicklaus were getting headlines as the Big Three, a label trumped up by their business manager with little justification, Casper was playing better golf. Check the stroke average—the best measure. He never got the ink because he didn’t have Mark McCormick managing him and he didn’t have as much personality as a glass of water.
Then Casper decided golf wasn’t as important to him as his other activities, including his family, his adopted religion, fishing, chasing back and forth to give golf lessons to the King of Morocco, and who knows what else. He stopped winning, got fat, and quickly went from being barely noticed to being unnoticed.
Ouch. Hill could be both blunt and brutal in his opinions, but the performance of Casper in 1977 gave Hill’s criticism a lot of credence. Going into the Masters in April, Casper sat in the 80th spot on the official money winning list with a paltry $8,982 in earnings. He moved up to the 74th spot by June with $18,382 in earnings but fell back down to the 85th spot in July with the same amount of earnings. By the end of the season in November he finished in the 85th spot with $28,929.
He entered the Mexican Open looking to boost his earnings and get something going with his game. The 1977 Mexican Open was being played at the Club de Golf Chiluca, a 6,746-yard, par-70 layout that is located about 23 miles northwest of downtown Mexico City and featured a purse of $75,000. Other pros from the U.S. entered included Frank Conner, Barry Jaeckel, Brady Miller, John Jacobs, Gay Brewer, Dwight Nevil, Tom Storey, and Gibby Gilbert.
In the first round, Conner captured the lead with a round of 65 that included six birdies, and he enjoyed a two-shot lead over Jaeckel and Casper. Miller, Jacobs, and Brewer were another stroke back at 68 while Nevil and Gilbert were at 69.
In the second round, Jaeckel carded six birdies, four of them in a row, offset by two bogeys, to record a three-under 68 and a two-day total of 134. He enjoyed a one-stroke lead over Casper who had a two-day total of 135 after a second-round 68. Tom Storey, from Las Vegas, also had six birdies in his round to shoot 65 and shared third place, with Frank Conner and John Jacobs, at 136. Gay Brewer recorded an even-par 70 and was tied at 138 with Manuel Ramos of Spain who carded a 66.
In Saturday’s third round, Casper shot a two-under-par 68 and captured a three-stroke lead with a total of 293. Ramos had the shot of the day, an ace at the narrow, 198-yard, ninth hole. This was the second hole-in-one of his career, the first occurring in May at the French Open. There, he won an automobile for his ace, but there was no such prize being awarded at the Mexican Open.
Casper held a three-stroke lead over Conner who carded an even-par 70 for a three-day total of 296. Casper had to overcome a triple bogey on his way to shooting a 68.
“It was rather difficult, but I felt good.”
In the final round, a one-over 71 was good enough for Casper to secure a three-shot victory over Gay Brewer who closed with an even-par 70 for a 277 total. Casper recalled what he was thinking in Saturday’s third-round after clinching the title on Sunday.
“I had a knot in my stomach Saturday, probably nerves, that made me play better,” he explained.
The relief of winning for the first time since 1975 was evident as Casper spoke with a reporter from the Associated Press.
“It was rather difficult, but I felt good,” he said.
Casper won $15,650 although this would not count towards his official earnings on the PGA TOUR as it was not an officially sanctioned event.
Finishing four-shots behind Casper was Jaeckel, Ernesto Perez Acosta of Mexico, and Seve Ballesteros of Spain.
Casper’s win in Mexico in 1977 did not represent a return to form to his glory days of the 1960s and early 1970s. In fact, it was his final victory before he matriculated to senior events on the PGA TOUR Champions circuit where he won for the first time in 1982 at the Shootout at Jeremy Ranch. He added another eight titles on the senior circuit including the Senior U.S. Open and the Mazda Senior Tournament Players Championship.
Next Week: The 2007 PGA Grand Slam of Golf in Bermuda won by Ángel Cabrera.
BONUS STORY
Billy Casper was not the only fellow pro that Dave Hill had harsh criticism for in his book “Teed Off.” Below are some of his other observations.
On Lee Elder
I didn’t care for the “controversies” he raised trying to get into the Masters, and I don’t think he is appreciative enough of what Charlie Sifford has done for him and other young blacks on the tour, but I like Lee.
On David Graham
I love to sit around and talk golf equipment and swing theory with David. He’s an opinionated devil.
David is from Australia and has traveled almost the entire world to play golf and sometimes he acts as if he owns it. He doesn’t know how good he has it. He comes to America to make sacks of money on our tour. Then he goes to tournaments and tells everyone how Americans aren’t complete players because they don’t play outside their homeland enough. That’s known as bad-mouthing the hand that feeds you.
On Hubert Green
His game isn’t much to look at. His swing is quick and too upright and he dips his shoulder coming down into the ball. Putting, he splits his hands on the shaft, spreads his legs, and hunkers over the ball like a chicken laying an egg.
Hubert is making good money right now—he won three in a row in early 1976—but he’s like so many of these young pros who think they have the tour by the tail. Today he can play because his nerves are great. If he ever wakes up one morning and asks himself what the game’s all about, he’s in a bunch of trouble.
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WHAT HOLE IS IT?
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Congratulations to Simon Wilks, who correctly identified #16 at Rainier Golf and Country Club in Seattle, WA in last week’s WHAT HOLE IS IT? contest. Simon beat out six other correct answers in the random drawing. We’re sending a prize pack of golf swag, including the new Tour Backspin 19th Hole Hot Sauce, to Simon.
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We got our hands on a treasure trove of film that we are cleaning up and digitizing for the Tony Lema documentary. Some great footage of Tony in action and even home movies. Very exciting. Check out the trailer below.
PGA TOUR Wrap-Up | News During an Off Week
Sweeping changes to the PGA TOUR have been proposed by the six player directors on the PGA TOUR Policy Board, in conjunction with the 16 players on the Player Advisory Council (PAC). Changes, which would take effect in 2026, include proposals on field sizes, membership status, sponsor exemptions and Monday qualifying.
The proposed changes will be up for approval at the Policy Board’s next meeting at the upcoming RSM Classic, but it is believed that approval is a foregone conclusion. The six player directors on the Policy Board drafted the recommendations and the other directors are believed to be supportive of the changes.
The proposals include a reduction in field sizes with a full-field event reduced from 156 to 144, with options to reduce it further, to 132, or 120, depending on conditions such as available daylight. The Players Championship will be reduced from 144 players to 120.
The field reductions would make it easier to complete rounds and improve pace of play. The reductions would also affect changes when it comes to playing eligability with a proposal to reduce the number of PGA TOUR cards and various exemptions including sponsor’s exemptions. The proposal is to reduce the number of tour cards by 20 to 25 percent.
Tour membership will be reduced by changing the exempt status from the top 125 players to the top 100 players. Korn Ferry Tour cards that are available will be reduced from 30 to 20 and PGA TOUR Q-School graduates would now be the top five instead of the current top five and ties. There is no change to the ten available cards to the top finishers in the DP World Tour Race to Dubai rankings.
Monday qualifying would be eliminated entirely for tournaments with a field size of 120 or fewer while two Monday qualifying spots would be available for events with 132-player fields, a 50% reduction from the current status.
These changes lead to adjustments that will have to be made to the tour’s structure and ranking systems. The proposed changes will also address the pace-of-play policies currently in place, but maybe not surprisingly, these changes involve more time for players to hit their ball and the elimination of any fines for slow play.
It is hard to not come to the conclusion that these policy changes, all of them recommended by players currently holding PGA TOUR cards, make it harder for players trying to move up to the tour while protecting the status of established players.
There were four sub-committees created with members, all players, from the Players Advisory Committee and PGA Tour Policy Board that came up with the new proposals. The extent of the changes, as well as the structure of these changes, points in a direction where one might think that having the players in charge of their league may not be the best pathway forward in keeping the product of the PGA TOUR vibrant, exciting, and continually renewing itself with new talent.
Clips You Might Have Missed
Trick or treat?
I guess when you’re rich . . . .
Get your kids into golf!
Hat tip to Kyle Porter of Normal Sport for his meme of the week.
This looks fun.
Tour Backspin Quiz | PGA TOUR History Trivia
What year did the PGA TOUR go to an all-exempt tour exempting the top 125 players from qualifying, up from 60 players?
Scroll down for answer
Swing Like a Pro
Billy Casper’s swing in slow motion.
Blind Shot
Click for something fun. 👀
Keith Stewart of golfdigest.com provides the odds for the upcoming TGL season.
You can play golf on this course for free. Josh Sens of golf.com has the details.
Tour Backspin Music Clip
The great Neil Young with Crazy Horse doing “Like a Hurricane” live in 1977.
Tour Backspin Quiz Answer:
The PGA TOUR went to an all-exempt tour, where the top 125 players on the previous year’s money list were exempt from qualifying for events. The previous number of exempt players was 60.
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Vintage Ad
Final Thoughts
What a character Dave Hill was. The tour needs some characters like him around these days.
Did Scottie Scheffler steal his right foot action from Billy Casper?
Did you remember that Barry Jaeckel is the son of actor Richard Jaeckel who was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his role in the 1971 film Sometimes a Great Notion?