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Show speaciingof SPORTS I By ROBERT McSHANE V; Released by Western Newspaper Union iX VHAT promises to be one of the most interesting winter golf campaigns ever known is well under un-der way with most of last year's professional pro-fessional favorites still ensconsed in the golden seat, managing to hold their own against all comers. With approximately $80,000 In prize money to shoot at, the pros have unlimbered their biggest guns. The quest for gold and glory started In Miami recently, and continues some 10,000 miles up and down the West coast, then to Arizona and Texas, then to New Orleans, and finally, back to Florida. First successful searcher was "Lord" Byron Nelson, he of the poetic golf swing, who headed westward west-ward with $2,500 Miami Open money in his pocket. Nelson, conceded by many fellow professionals to be the world's greatest golfer, won the affair af-fair with a 271, nine strokes under par for the 72 holes. He won by a single stroke from Clayton Heafner of Linville, N. C. Money Winner . Little Ben Hogan of White Plains, N. Y., the year's leading money winner, finished with a 275 total and third place. Sam Snead of Hot Springs, and Willie Goggin of Miami, Mi-ami, tied for fourth with 277. No one was, particularly surprised to see Nelson walk off with top honors hon-ors in the initial tournament of the winter circuit. Not even his closest competitor begrudged him the $2,500, for Lord Byron was on bis game and that means golf near perfection. By the same token, however, how-ever, no one would have been surprised sur-prised if the victory had gone to Hogan, Snead, Demaret, Smith or any one of a dozen other 1939-40 favorites. It is only natural that a lot of questions remain unanswered as yet. The winter campaign is too young to be used as the basis for any prognostications. For instance, can Slammin' Sam-7 Sam-7 Snead finally hit his true stride Ad start winning tournaments with .:hat beautiful swing? Remember that he finished the fall meets in good shape. And he opened the winter wars with a good showing. ; Dub golfers don't place fourth against competition like the Miami Open offered. For a while things , were looking dark for the West Vir-tginian. Vir-tginian. He had blown the National Opens of Philadelphia and Cleveland Cleve-land in 1939 and 1940. He lost his poise in the pinches and his mental men-tal attitude went haywire when the chips were down. Later on Sammy regained his courage. He won three of his last four big tournaments and gl ve Nelson a real battle for the professional golfers' crown. A Man to Watch Snead is one of the country's best golfers. Almost any pro golfer will insist that Sammy's is the finest swing in the game that he can't be beat from drive to pitch. His bif: weakness has been his mental atiitud-e, which has let him down aU too often. Once he gains full control of himself, he will win considerably con-siderably more than his share of tournaments. 'Ralph Guldahl is another player to watch. He hasn't been playing the kind of golf that he's capable of playing. Guldahl plays as cool a game as any man in the pro ranks. His failure to win more tournaments baffles even the experts. He is the. kind of a player one would expect to be consistent. He plays as though his veins were filled with ice water. This may be his year. He used to wreck the field, and may start in all over again. You may remember that Jimmy Demaret was a regular ball of fire along the winter circuit last year. He grabbed all the headlines in California, Cal-ifornia, Texas and Florida. He didn't open with a bang this year winning win-ning exactly S31.25 in Miami but he may come back to surprise the galleryitcs. Ben Hogan is likely to pick up where he left off last year. The $1,000 he won in Florida ran his total earnings for the year to $10,655. This gave him possession of the Vardon trophy, awarded annually by the Professional Golfers association to its most consistent member. Nelson, Nel-son, winner of last year's Vardon trophy, was second with a total of $9,653, and Snead was third with S9. 206. Hogan, who weighs in the neighborhood neigh-borhood of 132 pounds, continues to astound his contemporaries with his tremendous drives. Despite his small frame, he lays them off the tee with the longest drivers in the game. It wouldn't be at all surprising sur-prising if he continued the pace he set in California a year ago. Sport Shorts The Missouri Athletic commission is fostering a series of elimination matches to determine the world's wrestling champion . . . Ray Murphy, Mur-phy, Army's football captain-elect from Anaconda. Mont., attended a Butte business college, Montana U., and Montana State before being ad- j mitted to West Point j Baseball fans in the Canal Zone 1 hope to raise $20,000 with ivlv.ch they will try to induce the Giants : and Indians to train there in 1942. |