Lowest of the low
Sixty years ago, Homero Blancas mastered a quirky course in 55 strokes
Sixty years ago this weekend, on an odd course in a small town, a man signed a scorecard like no other.
No one has scored lower for fun or profit, and it is still—unless someone has been very shy about achieving something wonderful—the best number ever recorded in competition.
That sums up the rare and stunning round Homero Blancas played on Aug. 19, 1962, a 55 in the final round of the Premier Invitational in Longview, Texas, a stop on the “Barbeque Circuit,” a Calcutta-rich series of amateur tournaments in Texas towns from the 1940s to the 1970s.
Coverage in the local newspaper of Blancas’ 55.
Moreover, the 36-hole total Blancas had that summer Sunday 150 miles east of Dallas also is an untouchable, given that he warmed up for the double-nickel shocker with a 62 in the morning. That’s 117 strokes, five lower than the PGA Tour record for consecutive rounds (61-61—122 by Troy Matteson in the second and third rounds of the 2009 Frys.com Open).
Two decades ago, in writing a Golf World story on Blancas’ 55, I picked him up at DFW Airport and we drove to Longview. He hadn’t been there since he carded 27-28 on the funky nine-hole layout built next to the Premier Oil Company refinery, where two sets of tees were utilized for 18-hole rounds of 5,002 yards.
Short? Yes, even during an era of persimmon woods and wound, balata-covered balls. Easy? No, not with the skinny fairways, greens only slightly larger than living-room rugs and more out-of-bounds stakes than fire ants.
Jacky Cupit, part of the playoff for the 1963 U.S. Open at The Country Club with Arnold Palmer and the eventual champion, Julius Boros, grew up in Longview and played Premier often, winning the Invitational twice before going on tour, but 60 was his best score.
The long-closed course was an overgrown mess when Blancas and I visited, and because of the rattlesnakes and copperheads that no doubt inhabited the old tournament site, we weren’t as bold in our movements as Homero had been with his shots that historic day. The quirkiest hole was the 300-yard seventh, a dogleg that forced players to carry a large oil tank if attempting a direct route toward the green with their drives.
It was difficult to get around without penalty strokes. Premier’s quirky challenges could be maddening for golfers who were a little off form. That certainly wasn’t Blancas on Aug. 19, 1962, despite a short sleep after going into Bossier City, La., for a long night out with a few buddies, a trip that nearly turned tragic when their car missed a turn and skidded through a filling station, just missing the gas pumps, on the way back to Longview.
Seven strokes behind University of Houston teammate Fred Marti after 36 holes, Blancas made up ground with a Sunday morning 62. Then the really good stuff started to happen to the golfer who grew up living in a modest home on the grounds of River Oaks Country Club in Houston, where his father, an immigrant from Mexico, was a greenkeeper/maintenance man and Homero wore out his second-hand clubs trying to become as good as the low-handicap young men for whom he caddied. Blancas was hard-working with a knack for golf, breaking 90 one of the first times he played 18 holes at age 10.
“I’ve seen a lot of young hotshots, but this kid can really play,” Jimmy Demaret, three-time Masters champion and Houston resident told Dan Jenkins of Sports Illustrated when Blancas was a collegian. “I’d like to back him on the tour right now.”
By the time Blancas got to the 1962 Premier Invitational, he was a standout for the Houston Cougars, a 24-year-old who seldom saw a flagstick he didn’t want to attack. “It doesn’t scare me to make a lot of birdies,” he said to Sports Illustrated. His 27-28—55 was the result of that bold mindset—and a few lucky breaks. He skulled a chip on the second hole, but it caromed off the pin and into the hole for an eagle. On the 17th, a long birdie putt hit much too hard bounced into the air and into the cup. At the final hole, a par 5 where he arrived needing a birdie for 55 and got it, an errant tee shot bounced off a tree and back into play. The 55 could have been a 54, given the three-footer he missed on No. 5. That was the only lapse in a few hours of wonder. “You get in a zone,” Blancas told me for the Golf World article, “and to some extent I never felt like I did during the 55, ever again.”
The results from the 1962 Premier Invitational.
Not that Blancas didn’t have some very good days once he turned professional. In his first 10 seasons on the PGA Tour (1965-74) he won four tournaments and didn’t have a year out of the top 50 in earnings. Over his entire career, Blancas played 422 events with 73 top-10s, making the cut 75 percent of the time. He added a victory on what is now PGA Tour Champions in 1989.
Before Blancas shot 55, there was a report of such a score in 1935 by E.F. Staugaard at a course in Montebello, Calif., details of which are scant. Since Blancas obliterated the field in Longview—the next-lowest score in the final round was Dick Martin’s 65 among just three scores in the 60s in the championship flight—a few 55s have been recorded in non-tournament play: Steve Gilley, at Lynwood Golf and Country Club in Martinsville, Va., May 2004; Rhein Gibson, River Oaks Golf Club in Edmond, Okla., May 2012; Alexander Hughes, South Lakes Golf Course, Jenks, Okla., August 2020.
The closet anyone has gotten to Blancas’ score in competition is 57, by Bobby Wyatt, Alex Ross, David Carey and Macy Pate. David Carey. Wyatt was only 17 years old when he shot 57 in the 2010 Alabama Boys Junior at the Country Club of Mobile, a 14-under round that included 12 birdies and an eagle. Ross shot a front-nine 26 on the way to his 57 in the 2019 Dogwood Invitational at Druid Hills Golf Club in Atlanta. Carey joined the club with an 11-birdie, no-bogey score on a par-68 course at the 2019 Cervino Open on the Alps Tour. Pate was a 16-year-old high school sophomore competing in her conference championship when she birdied 14 holes—including 10 straight—on par-71 Bermuda Run West near Winston Salem, N.C.
Not many golfers can relate to the kind of round that young woman and the other 57-shooters experienced, but there is one Texan, now 84 years old, who sure can. On its diamond anniversary, his 55 still sparkles.