Don’t Forget Homero Blancas’ 55

Last updated on: August 29, 2020 at 8:25 pm by Kermit Zarley

Don’t Forget Homero Blancas’ 55 2020-08-29T20:25:51-07:00 Kermit Zarley

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It has been reported in some golf publications this week–including Golf and Golfweek–that Alexander Hughes recently shot a 55 on an 18-hole public golf course, South Lakes Golf Course, in Jenks, Oklahoma, and that it tied a previous 55 shot by Australian Rhein Gibson at River Oaks Golf Club in Edmond, Oklahoma. Both publications say Gibson held the record alone and that this is attested in the Guinness Book of World Records.

But Homero Blancas shot 55 on August 19, 1962, at Longview Country Club. It used to be in the Guinness Book of World Records. But they took it out by adding a requirement that the golf course must be at least 6,500 yards in length. Longview C.C. is reported to have been 5,002 yards long par 70. But it had very narrow fairways with close out-of-bounds stakes.

Plus, you can hit a golf ball so much farther and so much straighter nowadays with this modern equipment than you could back in 1962 with our equipment! It is such a huge difference. My son told me the other day that Titleist (#1 ball in golf) recently tested the first Pro V1 golf balls with those they have now, as swing speeds typical of the PGA Tour’s longest hitters nowadays, and today’s Pro V1s go forty yards farther. That was hard for me to believe, since Titleist made their first Pro V1s in the year 2000 and introduced them to the PGA Tour. And even those golf balls went much farther than those we played in 1962. It just shows how much difference there is in today’s equipment from way back then.

Homero Blancas was my teammate in college at the University of Houston. Homero (we usually called him Homer) played on the regular PGA Tour and won four tournaments. But back in his early days in college, I thought he was the best amateur golfer I’d ever seen. When I beat him in the 36-hole match play finals of the 1962 Individual NCAA Championship (in June, two months before his 55), I felt I had really accomplished something. It may have been the first time I ever beat Homero.

In my opinion, the 55 shot by Alexander Hughes and Rhein Gibson does not measure up to the 55 shot by Homero Blancas no matter how long the golf courses were. Plus, Homero shot his 55 in the last round of this amateur tournament; Fred Marti was playing with Homero; and Fred started the last round leading the tournament with about a five stroke lead or more over his close friend Homer, who was in second place.

That amateur golf tournament was named The Premier Invitational. Back then, especially in Texas, but also some parts of nearby Oklahoma and Louisiana, they had a bunch of weekend, amateur golf tournaments that had a “calcutta pool.” At a BBQ the night before the tournament began, they would auction contestants off in a form of gambling. The best players always were “bought” for the most money. Sometimes, if that player won the tournament, the bidder might hand him a few bucks on the side. Of course, that sort of thing was supposed to not be done if a golfer wanted to remain a pure amateur and thus be eligible for the big amateur tournaments. I won’t say anymore except that I only played in one of those tournaments, and Texans didn’t hardly know who I was.

Dave Williams was our coach. Under his coaching, the University of Houston won 16 NCAA Team Championships in men’s golf over a period of thirty years. It is still the record for a single coach in all major sports in college. Second place is the famed John Wooden, the basketball coach for UCLA, whose teams won ten NCAA championships. The first UofH golf win in the NCAA Team Championship was 1955.

In 2005, former UofH golfers joined together in Houston to play 18 holes of golf one day and have a BBQ as a fifty-year celebration of this UofH golf success. There was a lot of reminiscing, a lot of stories told, and a lot of laughter. Fred Marti, who also used to play the PGA Tour, told the best story of all, and none us had ever heard it.

Fred introduced what he was about to tell us as “the story behind the story.” That’s because it had never been told. That last day of the Longview Invitational, probably on Sunday, was 36 holes. But the night before, Homero, Fred, and Mark Hopkins (now deceased, God rest his soul) went around together, visiting the Longview bars and getting a bit inebriated. In fact, they got to bed so late the next morning that they only got about three hours of sleep before they had to rise and make their first 18-hole tee time at about 8:00 AM. And yes, Homero won the tournament with his 55.

So, out partying hard the night before, getting drunk, getting almost no sleep, playing 36 holes, and shooting 55 that second round–so much for going by the book!

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