Masters in Augusta

The full meaning of the new Augusta National Golf Club, opened last winter (TIME, Jan. 23, 1933), is that of a monument to one of the finest sportsmen and sporting careers ever known. Men from all over the country contributed to the building of a '"perfect" course that should embody everything Bobby Jones thought best in the game, and that should have Bobby Jones for its president.

And the full meaning of the Masters' Invitation Open Tournament held over this rolling, pine-fringed course last week was missed by those sportswriters who harped on "Bobby Jones's return to competition." True, it was his first tournament since 1930, the year of his "grand slam" in the British and U. S. Open and amateur championships. But it was much more than that. It was a chance for the game's greatest idol to show that he has not been inactive on his pedestal. He presented to the game and to all the professionals whose glory he so long monopolized, a new golfing institution and a new competition, rivaling even the U. S. Open in importance, far surpassing it in atmosphere.

Retired Champion Jones was unobtrusively everywhere performing his self-imposed duties of host. When he went out to play, paired with quizzical little Paul Runyan, who was high-money man among the pros this winter, it was at once obvious that his putting touch was, for this tournament, not with him. He characteristically insisted that his strenuous "hosting" had nothing to do with it and he worked manfully on his game, even sending over home for an old putter of his mother's to try and break the spell. But after a 76 and a 74 he was too far out of it to be saved by two fine par rounds of 72, played in company with his oldtime opponent, Walter Hagen. Georgians lamented and the newspapers talked about a great "defeat." Bobby Jones simply grinned. He had not gotten up this tournament just with the idea that he would win it. He was not going on into any other competitions, "through with all that business," and concerned only with his work for A. G. Spalding & Bros., his law practice, his family and his club, into which he has put a lot of his own money as well as time and care. He hoped everyone had had tun and would come back again every year to his annual party. Aging Emmett French surprised himself by turning in a 70 and leading the field for a few hours the first day. C. Ross ("Sandy") Somerville, the Canadian who won the U. S. Amateur in 1932, did a hole-in-one but nothing else startling. Harold MacSpaden repeatedly burned up the first nine, once getting five birdies in six holes, but could not keep it up. The real competition for the $1,500 first prize narrowed down among five professionals. Lanky, wavy-haired Horton Smith put a steady 72 beside a smashing 70 and led the field at half-play. Billy Burke, clenching his cigar and straining for distance as the wind freshened and a faint drizzle set in, hung on in second place with 72-71. Tied with him was Ed Dudley, the long-legged, drawling home professional. Craig Wood, the game's handsomest exponent, and the short, dogged Runyan, were passed for a moment by old MacDonald Smith, Ralph Stonehouse of Indianapolis and a newcomer named Jimmy Hines of New York's Timber Point Club. But Wood added a 69 and Runyan a 70 to get in line behind Smith. Burke and Dudley for the final stretch.

Wood went out early for his final round and promptly plunged into the woods on the first hole. A miraculous niblick out saved his par and he toured around steadily thereafter in 71 for a total of 285. Cameras that clicked and three long putts that just barely did not click gave Burke a hard-luck 73 and a total of 286. Ed Dudley's drive into the creek at the long fourth ruined his chances. Runyan needed a 69 to beat Wood, but he could not do better than 71. That left Horton Smith with par to beat Wood, and par he shot thanks to an iron-nerved ten-foot putt at the mountainous 17th green. His four rounds, four under the hardest kind of par, gave him the first major prize he ever won and the clear title of Master of Them All. If it also gave him for the future that confidence which three years of just-missing-out may have shaken, his fellows will be faced with a problem quite as stiff as the old one of "keeping up with the Jones."

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