Bob Ford could have kept going. Even his opponent wished he had kept playing, just to see what would have happened if he finished the final four holes. But Ford never gave it a thought. Especially with Arnold Palmer playing in the group ahead.

It happened in 1999, in the Palmer Cup matches at Latrobe Country Club, an annual event that pits the best club professionals in Western Pennsylvania against the best amateurs.

Ford, playing with Ned Weaver, then the pro at Southpointe Golf Club, was on fire. He had double-eagled the third hole, run off a bunch of other birdies, and was 9 under through 14 holes when the match ended.

"I've played with many people on the PGA Tour, and it was as fine a round of golf as I've ever seen," said Sean Knapp, Ford's amateur opponent that day. "There was no telling how low he was going to go."

Weaver and Knapp wanted to see Ford play the final four holes, just to see what he would shoot. The course record at Latrobe is 12-under 60, set by Palmer in September 1969, a round that included two bogeys.

Granted, Ford was competing in match play where individual scores don't count. Nonetheless, he never considered finishing, despite the prompting of his competitors.

Ford had too much respect for Palmer, for what he has meant to golf in general and Western Pennsylvania in particular, to even consider attempting to break his course record.

"Not in front of the King," Ford said. "It never entered my mind."

Ford put the ball in his pocket and went to watch Palmer finish his round.

That's all anyone needs to know about Bob Ford.

Bob Ford has been doing it all since 1979 as the golf professional at Oakmont Country Club -- playing, teaching, developing, merchandising, selling -- raising the standard among his peers the way Tiger Woods elevated the playing bar on the PGA Tour.

And he does it in the same unflappable demeanor, gliding as he walks, never frazzled, top button always buttoned. Only the sand in Oakmont's greenside bunkers is smoother.

"He is the absolute best," said former Oakmont general manager Pat LaRocca, the general manager at Phoenix Country Club. "He is the pro's pro."

Ford not only has one of the best jobs in America -- head pro at the club that is ready to host its eighth U.S. Open championship -- he has two of the best jobs in America, spending the winter months as the golf professional at Seminole Golf Club in Jupiter, Fla.

Over the years, he has become the face of Oakmont, almost as much as the green and white clubhouse and the Church Pews bunker. Those who know him don't even hesitate: He is the consummate club professional, the best in America.

"It's incredible how many people know who Bob Ford is," said Shinnecock Hills head professional Jack Druga, a former Oakmont assistant. "His tentacles and his name reach everybody in the world of golf."

"They got one of the best, if not the best, professionals that you could ever have," said John Mahaffey, who won the 1978 PGA Championship at Oakmont.

Even Tiger Woods knows him ... and likes him.

When he visited Oakmont for the first time in April, Woods had dinner with Ford, picked his brain about the history of the club and the course, and even asked his advice when they played a practice round the next day.

When they got to No. 15, a 499-yard par-4, Woods turned to Ford on the tee and said, "What do you like, Bob?"

Ford said, "I like that 3-wood you hit on No. 8."

Woods pulled 3-wood and split the fairway with a slight draw, then hit 8-iron to the green. Make no mistake, he will hit 3-wood during the U.S. Open, just like Ford told him.

"He's a great guy," Woods said. "I've been lucky to have gotten to know him, and he's also one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet, so helpful. And he's a helluva player, even to this day."

Phil Mickelson, the No. 2 player in the world, also played a practice round with Ford at Oakmont during the Memorial Day weekend. And it was Mickelson, one of the best short-game players in the world, who said it was "pretty cool" watching Ford putt Oakmont's greens.

"He's the person who has, I think, had the greatest influence of success on the game of golf," Mickelson said. "He has the personal interaction in making golf a better experience for everyone who plays, whether they come to play the club, whether he is giving lessons or whether he's teaching other professionals how to give lessons. That's what makes his job so important."

Quite simply, nobody does all of it better than Bob Ford.

How good is Bob Ford?

Not only is he the last host pro to compete in a U.S. Open; he is the only club pro since Claude Harmon in 1959 to make the cut in a U.S. Open on his home course. Ford did both in 1983, when he finished tied for 26th at Oakmont.

Ford was hoping to do it again this year, but he shot a disappointing 76-79 in a 36-hole sectional qualifier in Columbus, Ohio, and failed to gain a spot into the 107th U.S. Open. It would have been Ford's fourth U.S. Open appearance (he made the cut in 1983 and '96 at Oakland Hills).

"It's too long for me now," Ford said of the courses played by PGA Tour pros. "Somewhere, the game passed me by."

Don't be fooled by his grace.

Ford wanted to play the PGA Tour when he graduated from the University of Tampa in 1975, but he was hired out of school by Oakmont head professional Lew Worsham, the 1947 U.S. Open champion, as a 25-year-old assistant. When Worsham retired and Ford was named head professional in November 1979, he had the freedom to play competitively, nationally and locally. And he did.

He has appeared in 10 PGA Championships (he made the cut in 1990 and '93) and several PGA Tour events. In addition, he has won more tournaments in Western Pennsylvania than just about any club professional in history, winning the Tri-State section championship eight times, the Tri-State Open seven times, the Frank B. Fuhrer Invitational (formerly Pittsburgh Open) four times and the Pennsylvania Open three times.

What's more, he was named the TSPGA section player of the year nine times, including four years in a row during the 1990s.

"He epitomizes what I look for in a club pro -- he wears all the different hats and he's able to play," said Weaver, now the head professional at New Castle Country Club. "To me, the old school pros are guys who can play and still do what they do. At Oakmont, the demands on your time are a little different. And he's done it for years and years and years."

Lest anyone think Ford's game has slipped, consider what happened in August in the Tri-State PGA Senior Championship at Quicksilver Golf Club. After an opening 68, Ford shot a course-record 62 in the second round to win the tournament with a record 14-under 130.

The 62 easily broke the previous record of 65 held by Bob Charles in a 1993 Senior PGA Tour event. Quicksilver played at 6,784 yards that day, almost the same yardage when Charles won the Pittsburgh Senior Classic.

There are other noted golf professionals around the country, respected players and teachers such as Jim McLean, Darrell Kestner and Tom Nieporte. But nobody combines all the necessary requirements of a golf professional -- playing, teaching, marketing, sales, ambassador and sportsmanship -- better than the man who has been at Oakmont since 1973, when he helped Worsham in the pro shop when Johnny Miller shot his final-round 63 to win the U.S. Open.

"I don't know of anyone who can do what Bob does as a golf professional," said Druga, an assistant under Ford at Oakmont from 1980-87. "He's played in all those majors, made the cut in all those majors, ran the merchandise operation for the U.S. Open and on a day-to-day basis at Oakmont, and then you go into training his assistants and going the extra mile to get them their own jobs.

"You take all those things and realize that that Bob has achieved them at the highest level is really remarkable."

Druga, 47, worked seven years at Oakmont, then went on to become head professional at The Creek Club in Long Island, N.Y., The Loxahatchee Club in Jupiter, Fla., and the Country Club of Fairfield (Conn.), where he worked for 11 years before becoming the head professional at Shinnecock last fall.

Brett Upper (Arizona C.C.), Greg Lecker (Canoe Brook C.C., Summit, N.J.), Billy Anderson (Eagle Point G.C., Wilmington, N.C.), Sean Farren (The Creek Club), Adam Brigham (Phoenix C.C.) and James Swift (Santaluz Club, San Diego) are just a few of the former Oakmont assistants who have procured some of the best club professional jobs in America.

The reason is simple: Ford.

"If you wanted to hire a PGA club professional at one of the premier clubs in the country and you wanted to mold your choice after someone, you'd want it to be Bob Ford," said Upper, who grew up in the same hometown of Berwyn, Pa., and also attended the same high school (Conestoga) as Ford.

"He is respected by everybody, from the top of the game, from the Nicklauses and the Palmers, to everybody in the industry," said LaRocca, who worked 17 years with Ford at Oakmont. "It's a tribute to him that when other clubs around the country are thinking of hiring anyone, they call Bob."