To learn why, you'll have to watch this CNN video of a recent interview with 90 year old Roberto De Vincenzo. Well worth your time, as he maintains a great spirit and remarkable perspective on his many disappointments.
De Vincenzo is one of those athletes best known today for the one that got away, the 1968 Masters, wherein he was denied a spot in an 18 hole playoff due to inadvertently signing an incorrect scorecard. Tommy Aaron, his playing partner that day, mistakenly marked a par 4 on Roberto's scorecard instead of the birdie that he had, in fact, recorded. Unnoticed in the bustle around the 18th green, De Vincenzo signed the card resulting in tour rabbit Bob Goalby winning the event.
De Vincenzo handled the disappointment with amazing grace, never once blaming Aaron or Goalby. The ubiquity of his reaction, "What a stupid I am!" is terribly unfortunate, in that it seems to make fun of his command of English, thereby obscuring his very human and laudable struggle to accept one of life's profound indignities.
Also obscured was De Vincenzo's talent, which garnered him 230 career victories, including the national championships of sixteen countries. Most notable of the latter was his 1967 Open Championship at Hoylake. This from a man who, because of his origins in a poor country, didn't have the opportunity to compete at golf's highest levels until he was in his 40's. But without Roberto there's no doubt no Angel Cabrera, Camillo Villegas and others.
A wonderful, gracious man, who can look back on it all and tell us he got more from golf than he gave.
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