Evening star., 1942-06-22
Ben's I'll Is Brilliant,
But National Title
Still t|udes Him
Demuret 'Gout' of Event;
9Iowup Nets Him Tie at
274 With Mike Turneso
By GAYLE TALBOT.
Associated Press Sports Writer

Associated Press Sporb Wrltef.
CHICAGO, June % P.-Little
Ben Hogan, some 135 pounds of pure
whipcord, finally crashed through
to win that major golf champion
ship which eluded him so long while
he was busy winning most OF the
money and otherwise establishing
himself as the uncrowned king OF
the links.
His victory in the Hale America
tournament which ended yesterday
at the Ridgemoor Club was about
as brilliant a feat as golf has seen.
His total of 27l for the u holes
shattered by 10 strokes the record
for the National Open champion
ship. On his second round the dark.
diminutive ex-Texan shot an al
most unbelievable 81.
Supreme Goal Elusive.
Yet. ironically, the supreme goal
of every golfer still eludes Ben.
His name will not appear in golf's
record book as winner of the Ma
tional Open title. Because of the
war. there will be no Open tourna-
ment this year This was the
closest thing to it. Hogan, though,
was not in a mood to accept any
sympathy after he had rolled IN
puts from al sorts of distances
to score his clinching yesterday.
What difference does it maker
L11a-Ial stTf this wasn't An
Open championship I don't know
what could be- Everybody was in
It. I'm glad 10 win. whatever they
call it. 1 never expected to be
close after that 70 l shot the first
day. There were 81 other players
even with me or better that night"
Ben was the winner, the player
who pocketed first prize of $l,l0O.
The goat" OF the four day event
and there seems to be one in every
tournament-was Jimmy Demaret
of Detroit. The happy 60 lucky
Jimmy needed only to shoot the
last four holes in par to score
sc on his final round and finish In
a tie with Hogan for the title.
Instead, he went to pieces, drove
like the rankest duffer on three
consecutive holes and wound up
in a tie with Mike Turnesa for
second place with total OF 274.
Final Round Is Tense.
To sum it up, Hogan's four rounds
were 72-62-69- -68-27l. Demaret
had 68-68-69-69-274; Turnesa
65-66-72-71-274 The final
round was a tense one, with close
to 5000 spectators tearing over the
course in the hot sunshine, trying
to stick with the winner. Demaret
broke a lot of hearts when he blew
up in sight of the finish.
After the first three contenders,
the field was widely scattered. Seven
strokes behind Hogan at 278 were
Horton Smith, Jimmy Thomson
and Byron Nelson. Thomson's 66
was the best round of the flnal
day. Tied at 28O were Lawson Little
and Eddie Burke; at 28l were Dick
Metz, Jim Ferrier and Lloyd Man
grum. From there they scared on
into the 300-odd brackets.
"Dogged It"-Demaret.
"I dogged it," Demaret said frank
" in the dressing room. He meant,
of course, that he felt the strain
toward the last 1t is no disgrace in
big-time golf-especially when
competitor as grim and as
tenacious as Hogan is coming along
somewhere behind. At that, it was
trif1e tough on Demaret to shoot
four rounds under 10 and then find
himself making apologies.
1t seems to be the fate of the
Turnesas to do everything except
win. This time it was Mike. He
tied for the lead at the end OF the
first day with IS. led the pack at
36 holes with 131 and was even with
Hogan when they teed of yesterday,
each with 203. But his II down the
stretch wasn't good enough.
Ridgemoor, incidentally, was a
much tougher course on the final
round than on previous days OF the
tournament. All the players were
moaning that the cups had been
placed in impossible" positions.
The club, itself, attended to this.
evidently having become fed up
with the players jests about Ridge
moor being 'pitch-and-putt" lay
out. Every cup yesterday was set
on the side of hill. usually on the
ragged edge of the green. Even
so, Hogan managed to knock down