'Everybody cheats. I needed a few dollars': Almost 50 years later, a key figure speaks out on the Deepdale scandal

Golf Digest, March, 2001 by Dave Anderson

"The second day, we were trying to miss shots," he recalls. "On one hole, I had a 6- or 7-iron to the green and I told my caddie, 'Give me my 2.' I wanted to hit it into the trees behind the green. I did, but it bounced off the trees back on the green. It wouldn't have mattered what we shot. When we finished, the first thing Armie did was look at the other scores before he turned our card in."

Armstrong, along with Sands Point members Waters, Bud Sedlmayr and Mrs. Dan Drayton, had bought Field R for $1,900. Armstrong, who reputedly often invested in calcuttas, held 60 percent. The other three and sportscaster Harry Wismer (who along with WOR Radio president Tom O'Neil had a Field R ticket), each had 10 percent. The Roberts-"Vitali" team, if it won, stood to collect 25 percent of the purse.

It won easily, but not without stirring suspicion. After the Springfield strangers opened with their net 58, the Deepdale pro, the late Fred Dugan, watched them tee off and finish on Sunday.

"I said to myself, 'They play better golf than I do,' " Dugan told The Union. "I'm a short knocker, but that Roberts hit the ball a mile. They knew they had the tournament in the bag, so they played like a couple of hackers on the 18th."

'Schemer' denies wrongdoing

Armstrong, now deceased but remembered by at least two Sands Point members as a "schemer," denied being part of any conspiracy.

"I bought another team, for $1,200 on my own, and I bought half of myself, paired with Sumner Waters," he told The World-Telegram & Sun at the time. "If I had known anything, I certainly wouldn't have spent that money."

Armstrong acknowledged sitting with Roberts at the calcutta auction.

"The tournament just seemed to be loaded with coincidences for me," Armstrong said. "Roberts sat at our table, though I didn't talk to him, then Sumner and I were paired with him and his partner. Later Roberts and Helmar told me about blowing a tire and being unable to have it fixed at busy Saturday night gas stations, so I invited them to stay at my house; even loaned them my souped-up pet convertible."

The winning ticket was worth $16,016.90, or 44 percent of the net pool of about $36,000 after charity donations and dinner expenses were deducted. Roberts and Helmar were due $4,026.73, minus expenses.

The following Friday, Helmar wrote his "conscience-stricken" confession to Doyle, the Deepdale president. Vitali also wrote Doyle, explaining how Roberts had entered him without his knowledge.

"The day after the tournament, Bill called me, laughing," Vitali recalls. "He said, 'Hey, you won a golf tournament.' I said, 'What do you mean?' He said, 'Well, it was too late to change names.' I said, 'Bill, who went?' The fellow who went, Helmar, I didn't even know, but I knew he was a helluva player."

Helmar's letter described how Roberts had told him "it would be all right" to play under Vitali's name, that it was with Vitali's approval and using his 18-handicap.

"From the time I teed off," Helmar wrote, "I realized I was doing something wrong, and much to my regret, I continued playing under false pretenses. Upon arriving home being conscience stricken, I contacted Dick Vitali and learned all this was done without his knowledge or consent and that his handicap was only 8.