Show I 1 off I 1 I 1 1 I 1 by ROBERT mcshane S released by western newspaper union S el HOGAN pound professional BEN from hershey pa is sc accustomed to lining up at payoff window that he cant remember just when his winning streak started when hogan won the chicago open a couple of weeks ago his bis tournament earnings for the totaled top money in the pro ranks the chicago open was the fifty first tournament in which ben has been in the money though he remembers ers the number of consecutive meets in which his efforts have been rewarded with cash he cant remember where or when his streak got underway he thinks it il was in september 1939 but know where the chicago open netted ben 1200 and he figures he worked hard for every cent of it the record bears him out he fired a 10 under par t to 0 dethrone dick metz whose landed him in third place and to beat craig wood national and masters champion woods was good for second d place the pressure tells hogan admits that the pressure ol of these innumerable trips to the payoff window is beginning to tell the undersized dynamo estimates that he been out of the money more than five times since 1937 BEN HOGAN and that means a day atter after day week after week pressure with never a moments letup the golfelt who develop internal jitters would be an iron man but hogan managed to quiet any jittery jittery feeling he may have had during the three days of battle in the chicago open his opening day 66 five under par put him ahead ol of the field and he tore through the rest of the tourney slapping old man par in the face with rounds of 70 69 69 wood took a 73 in the opening round thereby losing his chance at the championship his subsequent rounds of 69 67 67 were nothing less than colossal but the initial two over par effort was too much of a handicap no walkaway hogan shot a 69 2 under par to tc take the 54 hole lead with four strokes in front of wood during the course of that third round the gallery realized that hogan was not 9 going to walk away with the tournament wood a champions champion had trailed ben by six strokes at the start of the last days play he caught up with the pacemaker on the thirteenth hole of the morning round however he took a bogey on the fourteenth and finished 45 4 5 on the par four seventeenth and eighteenth while hogan came back with a pair of birdies to assume a four stroke lead as they went into the final round in the last 18 holes wood came within one stroke of reaching hogan but the master workman carried too many guns from a technical standpoint bens victory came at the he thirteenth of the final round he hooked his drive to the rough and his second shot landed in a trap A beautiful swing with his blaster placed him a foot from the hole and for a par four from there on he miss the outcome of the tournament pleased most of the spectators who were at the finish hogan the mighty midget had more than his share of supporters always a tough competitor his current winning streak is to gott golf what demag gios hitting splurge was to baseball fans get a kick out of seeing the diminutive hogan belt a golf ball just as far and often farther than his heftier opponents his size handicapped him that is evidenced by the fact that he has cashed in on so many consecutive appearances |