Mike Souchak Golfer

JANUARY 16, 1956

Built more like Butkus than Hogan, muscle-bound Mike Souchak would be heckled about steroids these days on the PGA Tour. The 5'11", 215-pound, long-driving Souchak won 16 times between 1953 and '66 and was featured on SI's cover in a preview of the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am. Then, as now, his muscles were all natural. "I never even did weight training in college," says Souchak, who served for two years as a Navy gunner before enrolling at Duke, where he played golf and was a two-way starter on the football team—wide receiver and defensive end—in addition to kicking extra points. "It was all calisthenics."

His first two victories as a pro came in 1955 and included the Texas Open in San Antonio, where he set two of the Tour's most hallowed records. En route to an opening-round 60 at Brackenridge, Souchak fired a 27 on the back side, a nine-hole score that has been matched only twice (by Andy North in '75 and Billy Mayfair in 2001). He went on to shoot rounds of 68,64 and 65, the latter in howling winds and temperatures in the low 30s, to set a four-round record of 257 That number stood for 46 years ( Mark Calcavecchia broke it by one stroke at the '01 Phoenix Open) and highlighted a career in which he also played in two Ryder Cups.

Souchak left the Tour in 1966 with earnings near $300,000 and became head pro at Oakland Hills Country Club in Birmingham, Mich. In three years he was working at Oakland Hills in the summers and at Innisbrook Resort in Tarpon Springs, Fla., in the winters. Of all the responsibilities a head pro had, says Souchak, the most stressful was keeping the fleet of golf carts running. Recognizing a business opportunity, he teamed with two General Electric employees in '73 to form Golf Car Systems, a Clearwater, Fla.-based company that specializes in preventative maintenance. The company now has 60 mechanics looking after 5,000 carts in 13 states. "The idea is to service them before anything goes wrong," says Souchak, 75, who still runs the business with one of the original partners.

Mike and his wife, Nancy, spend October through May in Florida so that he can go to the office and so the couple can be near their four children and four grandchildren. They spend summers in Carmel, Calif., where Mike tries to golf three times a week as a member at Spyglass. "I have some of the new equipment," says Souchak, who never won a major but had six top five finishes. "I wish I'd had these new wedges 40 years ago."