Show SPEAKING OF S PO R ap 12 ow by ROBERT mcshane U WHAT promises to be one of the most interesting winter golf campaigns ever known is well under way with most of last las t years pr professional fess ional favorites still ensconced in the golden seat managing to hold their own against all comers with approximately in prize money to shoot at the pros have un unlimber limbered cd their b biggest guns the quest lor for gold and glory started in miami recently and continues some 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 with 2500 miami open money in his pocket nelson conceded by many fellow professionals to be the worlds greatest golfer won the affair with a 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 years leading money winner finished with a total and third place sam snead of hot springs and willie goggin of miami tied for fourth with no one was particularly particulars y surprised to see nelson walk off with top honors in the initial tournament ot of the winter circuit not even his closest competitor begrudged him the 2500 tor for lord byron was on his game galeand and that means golf near perfection by the same token however no one would have been surprised if the victory had gone to rogan nogan 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 slamming Slam min sammy snead finally hit his true stride and start winning tournaments with that beautiful swing remember that he finished the fall meets in good shape and he opened the winter wars with a good showing dub golfers dont place fourth against competition like the miami open offered for a while things were looking dark for the west virginian he had blown the national opens of philadelphia and cleveland in 1939 and 1940 he lost his poise in the pinches and his mental attitude went haywire when the chips were down later on sammy regained his courage he won three of his last four big tournaments and gave nelson a real battle for the professional golfers crown A man alan to watch snead is one of the co count rys best golfers almost any pr pro 11 golfer will insist that is the finest twing swing in the game that he cant be beat from drive to pitch his bit big weakness has been his mental attitude which has let him down all too often once be gains full control ot of himself he will win considerably sider ably more than his share of tournaments ralph guldahl is another player to watch he been playing the kind of golf that hes 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 lie 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 texas and florida he open with a bang this year winning exactly in miami but he may come back to surprise the gallery ites ben hogan is likely to pick up where he left off last year the 1000 he won in florida ran his total earnings for the year to this gave him possession of the vardon trophy awarded annually by the professional golfers association to its most consistent member nelson winner of last years vardon trophy was second with a total of and snead was third with rogan hogan who weighs in the neighborhood of 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 t be at all surprising 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 worlds wrestling champion ray hay mur phy ardys football ball fr Ts captain elect J Ama anaconda Anacon conda cla mont attended a butte B and it business college e montana U Dt montana 03 state becore before hene being admitted I 1 to west point hope baseball 3 tans fans m in the canal zone e 1 to raise 20 T with which they the will u try to induce anduce the giants and indians to train there in 1942 gwawr |