"
Bob Gasper hasn't lost his touch - the longtime golf pro still plays twice-weekly games at the King City Golf Club with Al Martin - his friend of 72 years and golf buddy for nearly that long.
Back at the home on Bull Mountain that Bob shares with his wife Earlene, a lifetime of newspaper clippings, including photos with golfers on the Professional Golfers Association circuit, bring back happy memories to the couple, who met in high school and have been together almost ever since.
Bob, who was born in West Bend, Wis., first picked up a golf club at the age of 3 or 4 and never had more than about five lessons in his life.
"My dad was a shoemaker who played golf and caddied too," said Bob, who had an older sister.
The family moved to Cottage Grove when Bob was in the first grade, and he later made his mark in several sports at Cottage Grove High School.
Recently Martin recommended Gasper for the school's Athletic Hall of Fame, writing, "Bob Gasper may well have been the most versatile athlete ever to walk the halls of CGHS. A four-sport letterman, Bob amassed nine letters (two in football, three in basketball, two in track and two in golf).
"It was golf where Gasper excelled. Awarded only two letters, he would have gotten four except for the fact that golf was not a sanctioned sport until his junior year. And who convinced the superintendent, Virg Kingsley, to OK golf? None other!
"But the jewel in his crown was as 'last man standing' on a 24-player finale to win the 1950 state of Oregon High School Golf Championship at Eastmoreland (in Portland)."
According to Martin, "Bob remains as the only CGHS player to win the state tourney 72-75-147 in May 1950."
During Bob's senior year, he won the State Junior Medalist Golf Tournament at Marshfield, Ore. A newspaper headline about his golf-playing ability during that time reads, "Gasper Putts Way to Win at Marshfield."
Bob also was one of four star golfers who qualified from the state of Oregon for the National Junior Golf Championship.
Bob joked that he met Earlene, who was two years behind him in school, "when she set a bear trap in the hallway."
He graduated from high school in 1950 and attended Saint Martin's College in Olympia, Wash., for one year. He lettered in golf at the University of Oregon, where he spent two terms, and also attended Southern Oregon College for a year until his dad passed away, and he returned home to help his mother.
"I was one year and one term short of graduating," Bob said.
Back in Cottage Grove, Bob held different jobs - he worked at Safeway and in the winter on a sawmill green chain. In the summer, he worked at the Cottage Grove Golf Club (now called Hidden Valley), where he operated the pro shop and was the greens keeper.
"It wasn't a rich place," Bob said. "But I was known for my teaching ability. When you're good at something, people come to you."
He calls himself a "natural" golfer who knew instinctively how to correct someone's swing.
Earlene, who spent her career working in banking, and Bob married in Las Vegas in 1957 and celebrated their 53rd wedding anniversary in August.
Bob continued to excel at golf - in July 1958, he played in the Oregon Match Play Tournament and came in second after W. Boots Porterfield, a then well-known professional golfer.
In May 1959, Bob was offered a job as assistant pro at the Columbia Edgewater Country Club, and the Gaspers moved to Portland.
Four months later, the pro shop burned down.
"Many members stored their clubs there, and the pro shop merchandise was lost, along with a number of electric golf carts," Bob said.
The shop was rebuilt, and Bob worked there until 1962, when Bob gathered 26 sponsors and went on the pro circuit for a year.
The couple drove to tournaments in a 1959 red Cadillac. "All the caddies would run over to look at it," Earlene said. "Everyone wanted to caddy for him."
Bob played in a different tournament almost every week - most were open but a few were invitational. "If there were more golfers than places, you had to qualify," Earlene said.
Back in Portland, Bob went to work at the Cedar Hills Albertson's for a couple months until he was hired as the assistant pro at the Portland Golf Club, a job he held for six years.
Bob applied for and was hired as the head pro at the Astoria Golf and Country Club, where he worked for 20 years.
While there, he continued to play in many statewide pro-amateur and open golf tournaments, often placing in the money.
Every year the club hosts the Coast Tournament, which is probably the largest golf tournament anywhere, with more than 400 entrants coming from all over. The tournament runs for eight days and has four flights.
Every year, Bob was a pivotal person in running the golf tournament and was the official rules person, often having to make rule decisions affecting the outcome of a match, sometimes involving a friend.
In spite of that, he often received letters of appreciation from many people around the state.
After two decades in Astoria, Bob was one of three finalists for the job of head pro at the Charbonneau Golf Club in Wilsonville, and the Gaspers moved there, although Bob ended up not getting the job.
Instead, he went to work as the assistant pro under Jim Smith at Pleasant Valley Golf Club in Clackamas, and the next summer got a job at the King City Golf Club under pro Ron Grove.
In the early spring of 1993, Bob became the King City pro, a job he held for 15 years until the King City Civic Association Board of Directors cancelled his contract in February 2008.
During Bob's decades of playing golf, he has had two holes in one and two double eagles. For his first double eagle, "Golf Digest" sent Bob a certificate of recognition for making three under par on the 10th hole at the Portland Golf Club, which was the only one in the U.S. at that time.
"Around the same time I got my first double eagle, I got a hole in one," Bob said. "And I got a second one at Columbia Edgewater."
Although Bob is now retired, he has never stopped being a teacher, which comes naturally to him.
Recently he was playing golf with a friend, Vince, who needed some help improving his stroke.
"I was lying on the ground and grabbed his ankles," Bob said. "I said, 'Only your body should move. You looked like you were doing the rumba.' Then I told him, 'Hit only half as hard as you can.'
"That ball went 100 feet off the ground and for more than 300 yards. Vince had been hooking and slicing, and it went straight as an arrow. He said, 'Can't you do anything to make me quit this game?' and I said I would send him my bill."
"
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.9.6