The Gaudy Texan

When Bobby Jones helped design the National golf course at Augusta, Ga., he made it fairly comfy for the average golfer, tough for the topflight pros. Most of the hazards seemed to have been placed just where they would penalize the game's best long-ball hitters. Last week, in the annual Masters Tournament, most of golf's top amateurs and pros agonized around Augusta's 6,900-yd. course through four days of overstuffed scores.

Defending Champion Sammy Snead of West Virginia and U.S. Open Champion Gary Middlecoff of Tennessee were the prematch favorites. Bantam Ben Hogan and breezy Jimmy Demaret, both Texans, were the second choices. Hogan, patiently reconstructing his game after his 1949 auto accident, was unmistakably the sentimental favorite. His comeback had backfired last winter, but he had been toiling over the Augusta course for a week, determined to win the one major championship that had eluded him all through his career.

Lucky 13. There were other determined men present. Australian-born San Franciscan Jim Ferrier used a gimpy backswing (result of a football injury), but he had a delicate putting touch over the tricky greens. By the end of the second day he held a four-stroke lead over Hogan, live strokes over Demaret. Snead and Middlecoff were trailing; the Masters became a pursuit of the seven-under-par pace set by the gangling Australian.

In the third round, though Ferrier was leading, the biggest gallery stamped after grim little Ben Hogan, sympathetically cheered his every shot. If anybody could catch the Australian, it seemed to be Ben. Jimmy Demaret, gaudily attired in rose slacks, also kept in the running. For the second day in a row, he got an eagle three on the tough dogleg 13th, finished the round with a par 72. But as they went into the final day Ferrier was still two strokes ahead of Hogan, four up on Demaret. The big reason: his marvelous putting touch, which had kept him 18 under par on the greens.

For the fourth round, on Easter Sunday, Demaret was sartorially splendid in a tasty chartreuse combination, but. after an appreciative glance at Jimmy, the biggest crowd took off after early starter Hogan. It was not to be Ben's day; he closed witha miserable (for him) 76. Jimmy Demaret ended with a snappy 69, helped by a birdie on his favorite 13th. Then, pretty sure of second money, he waited for Ferrier to finish.

The Sprint. By the twelfth hole Ferrier knew that all he had to do was to play par golf and the tournament would be his by three strokes. Instead, his trusty putter began to vibrate under the tension, shook him into misses for a costly 75. Demaret backed into the title by two strokes. His winning score for 72 holes: a five-under-par 283. The runners-up: Ferrier (285), Snead (287), and Hogan and Texas' Byron Nelson (288 apiece).

Said nervy Jimmy, who became the first man to win the Masters three times: "I saved my sprint for the finish." Then he added briskly: "I plan to return and win for a fourth time next year."

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