| OCR Text |
Show I SP0RTL1GHT. . Two Master Golfers Should Meet 1 By GRANTLAND RICE p- THERE IS A NATURAL In the golf world today it would be a meeting of Ben Hogan of the U.S.A. LiLi and Bobby Locke of x South Africa. Hogan is U. S. I open champion. Locke is British , open champion. Hogan Ho-gan has won the last two opens he played in, 1948 and 1950. Locke has won the last tnffl RriicK that bad this season, but with Ted Williams injured they face a terrific ter-rific job if they hope to better their position. So far under two different differ-ent managers they have been an ineffective lot. Only their hitting has kept to the high road. They passed the Fourth of July with a team batting bat-ting average of .305. This was by all odds the highest mark in both leagues. It is high enough to win two pennants, with only fair pitching. Here's the main trouble with the Red Sox if yon care to listen. There are three departments of baseball at least main departments. These are pitching, hitting and fielding. field-ing. The Red Sox are the supreme (Irantland Rice opens. Hogan has been acknowledged as the one to beat in most of the leading tournaments tourna-ments he has entered, before and after his accident. Locke has not only ruled South Africa and Great Britain but he has also left a wider trail of devastation through thi United States than any foreigner that ever played including Harry Vardon and Ted Ray. It was Bobby Locke who lured Sammy Snead to South Africa a few years ago and gave Virginia Vir-ginia Sammy a steady walloping wallop-ing over this faraway terrain. Both Hogan and Locke are great golfers. Their styles are wide apart but each is a master of fundamentals. fundamen-tals. Both are consistently straight off the tee, but I like Hogan's iron play better. Locke has a shade around the greens where he can turn out near miracles on certain occasions. Hogan, Snead and Mangrum have dominated play in the United States Miis season and the game over here can stand another face the same being Bobby Locke's. Hogan, with his motion-picture work ahead, has a busy schedule. But the call to contest usually finds Ben more than eager to return to action. Locke has now made his peace with the American P.G.A. and he can find far richer hunting over here than England offers at the moment. mo-ment. We have had similar duels in the past Hagen vs. Jones Hagen vs. Sarazen, Barnes and Hagen, to mention only a few. The Sarazen - Hagen' clash was the most spectacular. These two had the better right at that time to be called the two top men. Both Hogan and Locke are fine competitors, competi-tors, as well as being consistently fine golfers. It would be a new boost for general golfing interest to bring them together in a series of matches. match-es. In this connection it might also be mentioned that Lloyd Mangrum lately has been setting a dizzy pace. . Red Sox and 1950 Just about mid-July last year the Red Sox were 12 or 13 games off the pace. They were that far back of the Yankees. They are not quite natters oi ine game. They have second-class pitching. They have close to second-class fielding. For example, ex-ample, their infield is a powerhouse at bat. It isn't any too hot defensively. defen-sively. In fact, it is second division defensively. I've heard too many opponents speak about the number of easy hits that slip through the Red Sox infield. This infield has power offensive power but no defensive speed. It can't cover ground to choke off opposing op-posing rallies. Once again I get this information from other ball teams. This makes it tough on the pitchers. pitch-ers. They have hits charged against them that a Rizzuto would kill off or another faster-moving infielder would knock down. The trouble is that too many people peo-ple look only at batting averages at home runs and runs driven in where the Red Sox excel. They overlook pitching. They overlook defense. They overlook spirit. They all say they'd rather play for Tom Yawkey. Who wouldn't? The Red Sox have taken four years to discover that power alone doesn't rule baseball. LaMotta and Robinson It remains to be seen whether or not Jake LaMotta can be lured into the ring with Ray Robinson. But this is the only fight of any importance impor-tance that could be made this summer. sum-mer. Tiberio Mitri failed to come up to earlier predictions. The Italian is a good boxer not a great one but he can't punch. If a fighter hasn't a knockout punch he must at least have enough kick in either his left or right fist. It will be an entirely different matter in facing Robinson, a better boxer than Mitri and a far different puncher. Jim Norris has worked hard enough to keep the fight game going but at the moment it is badly stalled as far as any outdoor action is concerned. |
