When COVID Takes a Golf Friend

I GOT A CALL the other night from my old buddy Moon Man who wanted to let me know that the hero of our glory days had died of COVID.

- JERRY TARDE

Close readers of this column might remember him from a 2004 ranking of the Top 5 Putters I’ve Ever Seen: (1) Tiger Woods, (2) Jack Nicklaus, (3) Bobby Locke, (4) Billy Casper, (5) Ed (the Bear) Billus, an opponent of mine on Philadelphia munys who did not miss a single putt that mattered, 1973-’88. Actually, upon reflection, I think he was a little better than Locke and Casper.

The Bear is what we called him at Juniata Golf Course in Northeast Philly, where everybody had a nickname, and the regular wager was $2 per nine holes. I’d stand on the first tee with about 30 other coffee-drinkers and take a partner, like StiffArms or Wawa, and we would “box” the field—playing 15 matches against all the other pairs. These were the free-wheeling days of my youth, long before house payments and college tuitions. The player you wanted as a partner was the Bear because he never lost. He would take somebody like Cosmo the Fat Man who didn’t even play golf and win big money matches with a lot of side action against the bestball of Plucker, Long Hair and Chollie Binoculars. I was known as Pro Shop because that’s where I worked.