"I'm Not Sorry"

When the world's best professional and amateur golfers gathered at Rochester's Oak Hill Country Club last week for the 56th National Open, there was a hot sun in the sky and nerve-twanging tension in the air. Before the first round was done, scurrying officials had to flip four times through their complex rule books (sample heading: Hole Made by Burrowing Animal) to settle rhubarbs, including one in favor of Henry Cotton, oldtime monarch of British golf, who was accused of not owning up to an extra stroke. "I said I didn't have a go at it," sniffed Henry, "and those other two chaps [playing companions Jimmy Demaret and Gary Middlecoff] said I did have a go at it."

Under such pressure, Sam Snead, 44, took 40 goes at it to finish nine holes (five over par), which assured his 16th defeat in 16 tries at the Open. Jack Fleck, last year's winner, did not even qualify for the final two rounds. When the 51 finalists lined up for the last 36 holes on the lush green course, an affable, free-swinging Australian named Peter Thomson, 26, held the lead by a single stroke over Old Pro Ben Hogan, out for his fifth Open title. Rangy Gary Middlecoff, 35, the Memphis dentist, was only two strokes back, even though he had taken horrendous sevens to fill two of the cavities in the first two rounds. "If I'd been putting," said Middlecoff matter-of-factly after finishing the first round with 71, "I'd have been in the 60s."

Halfway through the third round, his putts rolling string-straight, cool Gary took the lead by a single stroke. Then, shooting cautious, slow-motion golf, the man who learned the game at the hide-and-seek age of seven turned on the pressure, played the last 27 holes in even par. On the last hole he was off to the left of the green behind a sand trap after his second shot. Middlecoff puffed on a cigarette for a moment, then chipped deftly. The ball rolled dead two feet from the pin. He holed out with a 281 for 72 holes, then headed for the clubhouse to sweat out the finishes of his challengers.

As it happened, Middlecoff had a fairly cool time of it. Limping on his game left leg, grim Ben Hogan, 43, cracked on the next-to-last green. Fidgeting with nervousness as he stood within grasping distance of his fifth Open title, Ben missed a three-footer, finished a stroke back at 282. Then the only other men Middlecoff had to worry about, Julius Boros of Southern Pines, N.C. and Ted Kroll of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., put themselves out. Middlecoff heard from a TV announcer that Kroll had flubbed his last chance on the 16th. Middlecoff grinned into a camera and told the nation: "Ted is a good friend." But, added the winner of the $25,000 Open, "I'm not sorry."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.