Haig & Haig

Around the first tee of the rolling Keller Park golf course last week crowded 5,000 Twin City fans. Of all the country's top-ranking professionals driving off in the $7,500 St. Paul Open, the golfer they were most anxious to see was the fabulous Walter Hagen, now 45, who had just returned to U. S. tournament play after a two-year globe-trotting exhibition tour. "The Haig" to prince and plumber alike, most colorful player the game ever developed, winner of 35 major championships (including two U. S. Opens, four British Opens and five P. G. A. titles) in the past 25 years, Golfer Hagen has earned over $1,000,000 and spent it with the flourish of an Indian potentate.

With all his old swagger, The Haig teed up, smacked his ball far down the fairway. As the crowd's eyes returned to the tee, they popped. There, teeing up, was another Haig. It was Walter Hagen Jr., 20-year-old Notre Dame sophomore, as green-eyed, chinless, nonchalant as his famed father.

Playing together in a major tournament for the first time, they were the No. 1 attraction, had practically the whole gallery behind them when they posted their scores at the end of the round: 77 for the Big Haig, 79 for the Little Haig. Next day, Father & Son got 75 and 78 respectively, bowed out of the tournament.* Father Hagen's two-round score of 152 was just one digit too high to include him among the 66 low scorers who qualified for the 36-hole final.

Junior, who had played only four previous rounds of golf with his father and had never had a formal lesson, was elated. "Only five worse than dad," he chuckled.

* Winner: curly-haired Johnny Revolta of Evanston, Ill., onetime (1935) P.G.A. champion, with a score of 276 (69, 68, 71, 68)--twelve under par.

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