Winners & Losers

"No one ever wins the Open," said four-time Winner Robert Tyre Jones as he looked back on his long career. "Someone is always losing it." Some old standbys were already losing it when the syth National Open golf tournament had barely begun. Bantam Ben Hogan, bent on winning for the fifth time, lost out before he got to the first tee at Toledo's Inverness Club; his back and chest had him in too much pain to swing. Veteran Tommy Bolt sprayed his shots so badly that he quit after only four holes of the second round.

Then there was grandfather Jimmy Demaret, 47. He finished the tournament at week's end with a fine 283 and figured he had it won. But he lost it all sitting in the clubhouse, waiting for the rest of the field. Dick Mayer, 34, former New York State amateur champion and now a Florida pro, finished with a fast 282. And Dick did not have it won either. Last year's winner, Dentist Gary Middlecoff, 36, of Memphis, Tenn., curled in a loft. putt for a birdie on the final hole, and forced a playoff.

All of a sudden, the crowd remembered that Mayer was the young man who had the Open in his hands in 1954 at Baltusrol, then threw it away and finished third, behind Furgol and Littler. "He never wins anything but money," said a spectator, recalling all the times the handsome blond had finished high up and failed to win. Chances seemed good that he would blow it again. This week in the play-off it was Middlecoff who came apart. He splashed shots all over the course. Remarkably calm in the oppressive heat, Mayer played steady, close-to-par golf. While Middlecoff made Bobby Jones a prophet and lost the National Open championship, Dick Mayer won it, 72-79.

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