Combat at Hazeltine

When we build a course, says Golf Course Architect Robert Trent Jones, "we think of ourselves as being in combat with the golfer. We're on the defense, and he's on the attack."

Jones, who has designed more than 250 courses around the world, has long been criticized by professional golfers as the "monster maker."

Their sharpest attack ever, though, was leveled last week at the ogre of a course that Jones conjured up for the Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn., site of the 1970 U.S. Open. Jack Nicklaus took one turn around the rolling, twisting, 7,151-yd. layout--the longest par-72 course in U.S. Open history--and groused: "On eleven of the 18 holes, you can't even see the area where the drives land." Billy Casper complained that on many approach shots he needed radar to spot the flagsticks. Bert Greene, experiencing similar problems, decided to "shoot for a cloud--preferably one that isn't moving." Don January and Homero Blancas were more down to earth. They simply refused to play "that Jones course."

Fit for Cows. It remained, however, for Dave Hill to get in the nastiest digs of all. "The man who designed this course had his blueprints upside down," said Hill, who has been fined by P.G.A. officials more than 20 times for popping off.

"What this place needs is 88 acres of corn and a few cows. Somebody ruined a good farm." That zinger gained Hill, the second highest money winner on the tour last year with earnings of $156,423, another $150 fine for conduct unbecoming a grump. After blasting their way out of a Sahara of sand traps in the first round, some players were also ready to blast Jones for the 40 m.p.h. winds that caused such stars as Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Nicklaus to shoot 79, 80 and 81 respectively. Said Lee Trevino: "If anyone shoots 281 on this course, the Pope is a possum."

Tony Jacklin did exactly that. While everyone else was moaning and groaning, the cool little man with the classic swing was building subpar scores of 71, 70, 70 and 70 to become the first golfer to lead the Open for all four rounds since Ben Hogan did it in 1953. A native of Scunthorpe, England, who spent his youth hacking through heather and gorse, Jacklin felt right at home with the winds and wiles of Hazeltine. He was in trouble only twice, both times on the wicked 17th hole--a crooked par four that called for an iron off the tee and swim fins to reach a green surrounded by two ponds. Twice Tony drove wildly into the deep rough; twice he boldly punched out of the trees and hit the green. Jacklin's 281 total bested Runner-Up Hill by seven strokes --the widest winning margin in 49 years of Open play.

Jacklin's victory, following hard on his triumph at the British Open last summer, marks him at 25 as one of the most promising young pros on the tour. Though he dropped out of school at 15 to play golf, he did not join the U.S. pro circuit until 1968. Last year he earned only $33,036, but now, with his $30,000 Open winnings, a home and a job as pro at the resort of Sea Island, Ga., and up to $1,000,000 for endorsing products, he says he is ready to concentrate on "becoming the greatest golfer in the world." And none of Jones' monsters are going to get in his way. "You have to accept things as they are," Jacklin said after last week's victory. "The golf course isn't going to be changed for me, so I adapt to it."

To all of which, Robert Trent Jones gives a ringing bravo. "If it's short, flat, dull courses that the pro golfers prefer, they can order them out of the Sears, Roebuck catalog," he says. Indeed, his whole object is to create a course of "hard pars and easy bogeys, a course that tests a player's skill by demanding well-thought-out and beautifully executed shots." Convinced that the gallery does not want to see "boring putting contests but great golf shots," he would even like to eliminate "cheap birdies" by extending the minimum length of par-five holes from 470 to 500 yds. "But, oh, would the pros scream," he says. "They are so pampered that if they ran the tour, they'd be shooting 250 for 72 holes. That would be like playing major league baseball on a softball diamond."

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