I’m a huge golf history buff and Friday, we lost one of the legendary characters of the game.

Ken Venturi, a larger-than-life over achiever, was told as a boy that he would be a lifetime stammerer. Little did any of us know, the stutter might have been one of the best things that ever happened to him. It led him to take up golf, a game where he found refuge from the constant struggle of overcoming that stammer. Of course he became a great player, and then spent 35 years in the booth announcing golf for CBS, proving of course, that he was capable of overcoming anything he put his mind to.

A legendary amateur, he never quite lived up to his billing as a pro and eventually became more famous as a commentator than as a player; which was unfortunate because we forgot how fine a player he was. He had 14 wins on the PGA Tour, and of course, what might go down as one of the most remarkable performances in U.S. Open history, his victory at the 1964 U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club.

I was just a high school kid at the time and I remember watching a few holes on a old black and white TV, and I said to my father: “Why is that guy stumbling; he looks like a fighter who is about to be knocked out.” It was the damndest thing I ever saw.

That day in Bethesda, Md., the temperature was near 100 degrees. Kenny was so into competing and being in the lead, he consumed very little liquid, until it was almost too late. Every step looked as though he was going to fall flat on his face. He would barely make it to the ball, then he’d set up and, out of nowhere, just rip it. Playing golf totally from his subconscious, he shot 136 at Congressional that day (66-70), and to the end of his life would tell you he remembered very little of it!

He suffered from heat exhaustion and dehydration so bad that when he went to sign the scorecard at the end of the round, he couldn’t even see it. Joe Dey, USGA director at the time, was there and he said:

“Just sign it Kenny, it’s all correct.”

Between rounds (it was the last year the USGA held 36 holes on Saturday) Raymond Floyd, his fellow competitor told his wife, “He’s pretty sick.”

The doctor who tended to him after the morning round advised him not to go back out for fear “he might not make it,” to which Kenny was alleged to have said something like, “Well, anything would be better than the way I’ve been living.”

See, prior to 1964, Venturi had suffered an inexplicable loss of his game mostly due to a bad case of the hooks. Gardner Dickinson, another tour pro and friend, played a round with him in the winter before the Open in which Venturi hit 11 balls out of bounds. Needless to say he wasn’t an odds on favorite in the event.

But the darkest hour is often just before the dawn, and the sun, in all its intensity, broke over Congressional that week for Ken Venturi. He loved and respected the game too much to go quietly into that good night, and his health and game held up just long enough to win our National Open. A fitting tribute to a humble, great champion who loved the game of golf with every fiber of his being, and never forgot that the game of golf is “bigger than anyone who plays it.”

I’m sure he has a tee time up above with, most likely Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson and his great lifetime friend, Harvey Ward. Play well Kenny, and thanks for all you did for our game.

As always, feel free to send a swing video to my Facebook page and I will do my best to give you my feedback.