In Florida

Last week idlers in Florida beheld what is now known as "a protracted assassination." The weapon: a smooth steel club with a crook in it and a wooden haft. The assassin: a swart, puss-footed gentleman with a debonair smile, immaculate raiment and merciless accuracy of eye and wrist. He dealt his blows delicately, at infrequent intervals, seeming to select moments when he could most bitterly annoy his prey. His prey: a chunky, blond youth with a grim but cheerful smile.

Golf club officials had brought them together -- swart Walter Hagen and blond Amateur Champion Bobby Jones. No title impended; it was primarily an affair of honor between two of the keenest match-playy golfers that ever cut a divot. It was also a great resort attraction. They had set aside two Sundays to render each other satisfaction. On the first, Hagen came off 8 up after 36 holes played at Sarasota. The second Sunday found them threading the lagoons and jungled ravines of the Pasadena course at St. Petersburg (Hagen's home links this winter). It was on the well-groomed Pasadena greens that Hagen indulged in diabolism.

They had hardly set off when he flicked his putter, just so, and his ball found its way across 70 feet of turf into the cup. Jones had back at him in a few minutes with a 30-footer, which Hagen parried instantly from seven paces -- a "half" in birdy 2's. This sort of thing continued until lunch was served, and Hagen was 12 up.

After lunch he kept the margin until the 61st hole, where people that are 12 up in a 72-hole match either win or prolong the agony. Jones holed out from 30 feet -- but so, with a last furtive twitch, did Hagen. For his 237 strokes (seven under an average of 4's, five under the pars played), he then collected what Amateur Jones would have shunned in any case--swag; of $6,800, a record for this type of engagement.