La Gorce

A big gallery always follows Gene Sarazen. The one that got round the first tee at Miami last week as he drove off for the final round of the La Gorce Open, with $15,000 up in prizes, was bigger than usual. Sarazen was leading the field. People who weren't following him dropped back to watch Cruickshank, a stroke behind. Johnny Farrell started late. Few spectators bothered him.

To the starter, marking up the scores on the blackboard in front of his tent, came the news that at the ninth hole Sarazen was floundering. He had a 39, but Cruickshank had a 30. And when Cruickshank finished the last nine in 36 the starter himself left the blackboard and joined the people who were crowding to get a look at this sure winner while cameras clicked and Cruickshank posed with a driver on one arm and his wife on the other. Just about that time Farrell had finished the first nine. His score was 30 too.

La Gorce is an open course, flat, like most Florida courses, but well trapped. Par isn't often broken. Some of Cruickshank's followers cut over to the tenth and fell in behind Farrell. And when Farrell came up to the sixteenth needing only two par holes to win, all the people who had been scattered over the club grounds formed into lanes on each side of the fairway. Farrell came to the eighteenth with a two stroke lead, purposely drove over the heads of the crowd into the tenth fairway, pitched his approach to the flag and sank his putt, winning $5,000. Cruickshank got $2,500, Sarazen $650.