"Then I went to bed and slept like a man with nothing to lose."

Thanks to reader Laury for Lee Benson's story setting up an excerpt from Billy Casper's new book because as fun as the Masters was, it's hard not to get excited about a return to historic Olympic Club reading about fresh details of the historic '66 Open there. This is after Arnold Palmer's Sunday collapse and before the Monday playoff win by Casper.

After the postmortem, we went to our separate corners, Arnold to his friends' home in the city, where he and Winnie had a quiet dinner with, among others, Mark and Nancy McCormack; me to a Mormon meetinghouse to give a talk.

Long before I knew I would tie for the lead in the U.S. Open, and be in a lengthy press conference afterward, and that I would be playing another 18 holes the next day, I had agreed to give a Sunday night fireside talk at 7 o'clock in Petaluma, 40 miles north of the city.

A deal's a deal. I changed and drove straight to the church, arriving almost an hour late. The chapel was full. No one had left.

I can remember the length of every putt and exactly what club I hit on every shot that Sunday, but to this day the most I can remember about that fireside is talking about my trip to Vietnam. But I must have said something mildly interesting because it was after 11 p.m. when the meeting ended.

I returned to the Leiningers' home in Greenbrae. I hadn't eaten anything since lunch. Shirley turned on the grill and I had a late, late dinner of pork chops, green beans and salad.

Then I went to bed and slept like a man with nothing to lose.