His name is still magical, evoking memories of golf's biggest upset.
His game is still respectable, giving hope to octogenarians everywhere.
When Jack Fleck fired an opening-round 77 in last week's Senior PGA Championship at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, about the only person who didn't make a big deal about shooting better than an age was Fleck himself.
In fact, Fleck was more interested in talking about some of his former competitors, like the legendary Sam Snead and Jerry Barber, who accomplished that feat on a regular basis. Or a fellow in California Fleck knew years back.
"He played four to six times a week until he was 103," said Fleck, 80. "He had more contracts with banks, corporations and businesses the last 10 or 15 years [of his life]. When he died, the city of Anaheim named their municipal course after him. I tell older fellows and people, no matter how you score, play."
Fleck's most memorable achievement came when he beat golf's reigning king, Ben Hogan, in a playoff for the 1955 U.S. Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco. His most remarkable achievement could come today.
Fleck will try to qualify at Brookside Country Club in Canton, Ohio, for this month's U.S. Senior Open at Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, scheduled for June 27-30. If successful in the 18-hole qualifier, Fleck would be the oldest player ever in a Senior Open.
"I'm not sure about playing without a practice round, but we'll do the best we can," said Fleck, who withdrew from the Senior PGA Championship when his caddie, Ed Tallach, 56, went to the hospital with fever and dizziness. "And then we're going on Tuesday or Wednesday to Bethpage [New York for the PGA Tour's U.S. Open]. May see a few guys. I'm not playing, of course."
Fleck stopped playing regularly on the Senior Tour in the late 1980s, and his last event was in 1996.
Fleck's life, starting with his childhood in Pittsburgh and his early years as a club pro in Des Moines, Iowa, as well as his historic win over Hogan, have been chronicled in an autobiography that Fleck self-published and will come out this week.
"I'm a professional golfer, not a professional writer," Fleck said in a news release. "I don't expect to win any literary awards or even a C-plus from my late English teacher. But I've had my story twisted and turned so many times over the years."
Fleck recalled a conversation he had with Barber a couple of weeks after he beat Hogan.
"We had lunch and he said, 'Jack, I knew you were the only player who could beat Hogan' - I don't know why he said the only guy - 'if you could putt a little.' He said, 'You must have putted pretty well.'
"Other than the first round, I putted the greatest for that there ever was."
Fleck, who had predicted to a local sportswriter that he would finish in the top 10 that week, wound up beating Hogan by three strokes. He did it using clubs issued by Hogan's manufacturing company.
Though current U.S. Open champions get a 10-year exemption, Fleck has a lifetime exemption for the PGA Tour that was given to all Open champions before 1972. Fleck sued to get the same exemption on the Senior Tour.
"They didn't recognize what was in the bylaws when they took over the Club Pro PGA of America entity," Fleck said. "But that's history."
History is what Fleck will try to make today. A World War II veteran who fought at Utah Beach - he used to practice his golf swing during downtime on his ship - Fleck has stayed in shape by doing yoga and other stretching exercises, as well as weight training.
He recalled what Barber once told him.
"Jerry always said, 'I don't know why age has anything to do with golf,' " recalled Fleck.
NOTE: The local Senior Open qualifying round will be played at the Country Club of Woodmore, in Mitchellville.