Evening star., 1942-04-09
Hogan Is Heavy
Choice 10 Gain
Masters Title
Royalty of 0olfdom
Playing in Classic
On Augusta Links
BY GAYLE TALBOT,
Associated Press Sports Writer.


AUGUSTA, Ga, April 9.-Over
one of the worlds loveliest golf
courses, the royal family of the game
starts playing today in the 72-hole
Masters Tournament, with the snarl
Of military motors overhead to re-
mind them that this probably is the
last sentimental stop at Bobby Jones
course until after the war.
Even though they have been play
ing against each other all winter
most of them-from the West Coast
across the country, the boys seemed
not to realize that the big bust-up
was at hand until they landed here.
Now they do and it has given them
an added incentive to win the most
coveted of the titles, excepting only
the open 1t was a tense, tightly
wound field of 42 that teed of today.
The Masters, though it was what
might be called q manufactured"
tournament to begin with, has in the
last eight years taken a remarkable
hold on the players. One and all,
they look forward each year to re-
ceiving one of the big embossed in
vitationS, and when none shows up
they are crestfallen.
Sentiment Plays Big Part.
Partly, no doubt, it is because they
are playing in the same field with
Bobby Jones. 1t seems almost un-
believable, sometimes, that such
mechanically perfect players as the
two Texans. Ben Hogan and Byron
Nelson, for instance, should stand In
such honest awe Of Jones. But tney
do, and to their credit.
Perhaps this gives another angle
of the masters. The pairingS are
made with an eye for the dramatic.
They do not pull names out OF hat.
At 2 o'clock today Jones goes down
the first wide fairway with Craig
Wood, the defending champion and
the 1941 open champion. They Will
carry the gallery to the exclusion OF
the Nelson's, the Hogans, the PlcardS
and the Littles.
And farther down, playing togeth-
er, will be little Bobby Cruickshank.
the Wee Scot" whom Jones de-
feated in a playof for the 1928 open
crown, going around with Tommy
Armour, who won in 1927. Cruick-
shank has just become a grandfath-
er. The money tournaments do not
produce that kind of sentiment.
Hogan Is Great Favorite.
That, however, wraps up the SEN
timental side of this tournament.
Getting down to earth, the over
whelming favorite to win Is Ben
Hogan, a dark, sober money-winner
who was born in Stephenville, Tex.
Ben, a boy Of under medium height
with high, Indian" cheekbones.
doesn't say much, but he has been
winning most of the money for
couple OF years,
His game, following him for 1s
holes, looks about as perfect as golf
could be. Right from the tee 10 tho
flag his shots follow a line you
scarcely could better with a rife.
After a time it becomes uncanny.
He misses scoring a birdie only
when he fails to drop a putt.
Armour and Gene Sarazen, who
have been better than average golf
ers, say he is the best there ever has
been. That is something, coming
! from them.
They say this one should be even
easier for Hogan because they are
| playing real golf rules-that is, there
is no teeing-up on the fairways.
Balls are played as they lie. The
only other two tournaments they
| played like that this winter, at Los
Angeles and at Pinehurst, Hogan
won hands down.