Strange But True: Watch What You Sign

As usual, the world’s greatest golfers entered the 1968 Masters Tournament at Augusta, Georgia. The line-up included Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Tommy Aaron and a man from Argentina named Roberto de Vicenzo.

It was a rough tournament. At the end of the first round Billy Casper was in the lead with a score of 68. Two strokes behind were Tony Jacklin, Nicklaus, Aaron and de Vicenzo. But Casper couldn’t hold the lead and soon dropped out of contention. At the end of the second round, Player and Don January were tied for the lead. De Vicenzo was three strokes behind. After the third round of 18 holes had been played, only three strokes separated eleven golfers. It was still anybody’s tournament.

Roberto de Vicenzo began his drive toward the top with an eagle (2 under par) on the first hole of the last round. Then he birdied the next two holes, took an even par on each of the next four holes and got another birdie on the eighth hole.

One by one the competitors dropped behind, until, with two holes left to play, it was a toss-up between de Vicenzo and another golfer named Bob Goalby.

On the final hole, de Vicenzo seemed to have lost his magic. He took a bogey 5 (1 over par) when his putt failed to drop into the hole. But Goalby had bogeyed the previous hole. So, at the end of the match it appeared that Goalby and de Vicenzo were tied.

In golf, when two players are “paired,” one player keeps score for the other. During the last round of the tournament, de Vicenzo had been paired with Tommy Aaron; de Vicenzo kept score for Aaron, and Aaron kept score for de Vicenzo.

Back on the seventeenth hole, de Vicenzo had scored a birdie, playing the hole in three strokes. But, for some unexplained reason, Aaron had written down 4. De Vicenzo was so happy with his tie that he did not add up the totals on his card. He signed it without looking.

The rules of golf are rigid. They say that once a competitor signs his card, no score may be changed. The officials saw that de Vicenzo’s card showed his total for the last round was 66, not 65. They knew it was a wrong total, but there was nothing they could do because de Vicenzo had signed the card.

When de Vicenzo heard the news that he had lost the Masters with a single stroke of a pen, he slapped his forehead with his palm and muttered, “Stupid! Stupid!” Later, he told reporters, “I play golf all over the world for thirty years. Now all I think of is what a stupid I am to be so wrong in this wonderful tournament. I must be too old to win.”

He never again came close in the Masters.

From The Giant Book of Strange But True Sports Stories by Howard Liss. Illustrations by Joe Mathieu.