(Editor’s note: This is part of our Remember This series, looking back at memorable moments in golf history.)
Mike Reasor’s path to professional golf fame was certainly a peculiar one.
He played collegiately at BYU, where he called Johnny Miller a teammate.
In 1966, he was drawn from a pool to carry Arnold Palmer’s clubs in the U.S. Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco. Palmer blew a seven-stroke lead over the final nine holes on Sunday and lost to Billy Casper in an 18-hole playoff the next day.
But the stat that really boggles the mind concerning Reasor’s career was his showing at the Tallahassee Open, where he finished an unthinkable 93-over par — what many think was the highest tournament total ever posted at a professional event.
As you might expect, the tale has a backstory.
At a time when exemptions were few and most pro tournaments filled their tee sheets through qualifiers, Reason was a journeyman, and if he could succeed in making the cut and finishing at the Tallahassee Open — an event that was played from 1969 to 1989 — he’d qualify for the following week’s Byron Nelson Classic.
The Seattle native made the cut, shooting an even-par 144 through the first two rounds at Killearn Country Club. But making the cut was only half of the task — he had to finish the event to earn the qualification.
Between rounds, however, Reasor was thrown from a friend’s horse into a tree, which separated his left shoulder, tore rib cartilage and damaged knee ligaments.
Despite the injuries, Reasor insisted on playing the closing rounds to remain eligible for the Nelson Classic.
Swinging a 5-iron with one hand and keeping the other hand tucked inside his belt, he shot a round of 123 on Saturday. Then, on Sunday — April 28, 1974 — Reasor followed with a 114 to finish at 93-over par, which is among the highest tournament scores recorded on tour, though no official accounting is kept.
“On the last three holes on Saturday, word had gotten around the course what this crazy fool was doing,” Reasor recalled last year in an interview with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “We had more people watching us than the leaders.”
Reasor finished in the top five three times, but never won a PGA Tour event. He competed on the Tour from 1969 to ’79.
He died in 2002, just hours after shooting a 3-over 75 Thursday at Bend Golf and Country Club, in Bend, Oregon.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)