This edition of Golf Writer Andy Reistetter's exclusive series entitled "Meet Golfers the Write Way" features someone you likely know of but don't know enough about. Reistetter was fortunate to have time with Billy Casper, along with his writers James Parkinson and Lee Benson, for a one-on-three interview at this year's PGA Show. Here are some quotes and perspectives that you will not find in their recently published book "The Big Three and Me." Join Reistetter as he goes back past the modern Tiger era to time when Arnold Palmer, Billy Casper, Jack Nicklaus, and Gary Player dominated the game of golf.

There was a sense of revival at this year's PGA Show. Golf 2.0 promoting friends, family and fun! If you like, play it forward, play a few holes and play with eight-inch cups.

My sense of golf was revived at the show, but not for any of the above reasons. The flame was reignited because I met Billy Casper and now understand him more than ever.

Some would say Billy never got his dues. In today's vernacular, Billy did not go "viral" like Palmer, Nicklaus and Player did as "The Big Three."

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I knew he was a golfing legend before I met him. A quick book count in my golf library has Palmer at 18, Nicklaus at 12, Player at 10 and Casper at six. The point is that I have all six of the books ever written on Casper. Now here comes another much needed Casper book that in essence tells the whole story.

The Casper story is a simple one, and he would tell you as he did me that there were four turning points in his life.

The first one was the day he became a caddie at age 11. The second was when he stayed in Chula Vista as a high school senior when his mother moved to Los Angeles. This decision led to securing his lifelong love affair with his wife Shirley.

The third key was when he decided to lay up on the par-three third hole at Winged Foot in the 1959 U.S. Open. He pitched up and made a par-three every round and won his first of three majors by one stroke at age 27.

Why lay up on a par-three? "I played the way I felt inside," was Casper's response to me. The same could be said for his life as he lived it from the "inside out."

The fourth turning point in his life came when he and his young family joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and committed to tithing 10 percent of his winnings on tour. This was a bold move in 1966 when "Giving Back" and "Together, Anything's Possible" were not officially promoted PGA Tour initiatives.

Casper was inspired by Ben Hogan. His caddie job led him to a mystical encounter with Hogan at age 15 at San Diego Country Club. Both men were rags-to-riches lore of the PGA Tour. Casper naturally adopted Hogan's demeanor—quiet, focused and controlled.

He was the opposite personality of Arnold Palmer, though no better or no worse a person and golfer. Palmer and then Nicklaus were the stars of the tour's venture into television during the decade of the 1960s.

The book is well written and has the right format to tell the story of Billy Casper.

Jim Parkinson, a lawyer by day, makes the case for Casper's golfing greatness in the prologue, utilizing statistics. Casper's 51 wins put him seventh on the all-time list. He is behind Nicklaus (73) and Palmer (62) and ahead of Player (24).

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"Buffalo Billy" won at least one tournament per year from 1956 to 1971, one shy of Nicklaus and Palmer's record streak of 17 years. He has played in more Ryder Cup matches and won more points than any American.

As the foreword points out, Jack himself in his autobiography noted that "the trio (of Palmer, Nicklaus and Player) should really have been a quartet. This is not a new realization as Al Barkow came to the same conclusion in the 1989 book History of the PGA Tour: "the most celebrated group of Tour pros during this period (1960-1969) included Palmer, Nicklaus, Player and Casper."

After the numbers state the case for Casper, the story begins in the middle with the 1966 U.S. Open at Olympic Club.

Palmer was up by seven strokes with nine holes to play. With three to play, the lead was only three strokes. With Palmer in trouble on the 16th hole, the momentum switched to Casper's favor, and the story flashes back to when Billy's dad introduced him to the game in the cow pastures of New Mexico at the age of four.

Ten chapters later, after playing through the fairways of Casper's life, the story returns to the 1966 U.S. Open and his eventual playoff win over Palmer. The King would go on to win 13 more individual titles on the tour but never again a major.

Casper would go on to win 21 more times, including the 1970 Masters by beating his hometown nemesis Gene Littler in a playoff.

"I wanted to be tested. I wanted all the pressure I could get on me," Casper told me. "I thrived on the pressure—that's what I loved. My early life built that into me."

One can't help but think about Tiger Woods, who has not won another major in six attempts since the unexpected victory by Y.E. Yang in the 2009 PGA Championship at Hazeltine. After his resurgent win at Bay Hill, perhaps Tiger's next major win will be at the Masters or the U.S. Open, which returns to Olympic Club this year.

Interestingly, the Olympic Club formed in 1860, named after the ancient games and before the Olympics was revived in 1896. The 1924 Games in Paris included 24 members from the San Francisco club. Golf will be celebrated in June at the place where Jack Fleck beat Ben Hogan in 1955 and where both Scott Simpson (1987) and Lee Janzen (1998) have won U.S. Opens since Casper beat Palmer.

That 1966 U.S. Open was also the coming-out party for a young Johnny Miller, who had planned to caddy in the tournament until he finished third in the local San Francisco qualifier. At age 19, he finished in eighth place and won low amateur honors. It would be another five years before Miller won his first of 25 PGA Tour victories, including two majors.

Casper, along with Fleck and Miller, will be at the Olympic Club for the Open. Casper had a cameo role in the 1972 Walt Disney movie Now You See Him, Now You Don't.

I hope you see him as I do—a deserving legend of the game of golf, right up there with his contemporaries Palmer, Nicklaus and Player!

Enjoy the book!

Andy Reistetter is a freelance golf writer as well as a Spotter, Research and Broadcast Assistant for The Golf Channel, NBC and CBS Sports. He spends time on all four major American golf tours—the PGA Tour, Champions, Nationwide and LPGA Tours.

Reistetter resides within two miles of the PGA Tour headquarters and the home of The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach.

A lifetime golfer, Andy enjoys volunteering at the World Golf Hall of Fame and The Players while pursuing his passion for the game of golf and everything associated with it.

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