For Masters Only

For three years, turkeys and cattle had gobbled and grazed where the masters once trod. Last week the Augusta National Golf Club was open again. The dream golf course outside Augusta, Ga., built by and for Bobby Jones, had so much botanical beauty about that each hole had a flowery name (Flowering Peach, Yellow Jasmine, Spanish Dagger, Azalea). Bobby Jones, in semiretirement, played his one tournament a year there against masters and past masters only. This time 50 crack golfers were there--and Bobby, now 44, was back.

The Old Master teed up against Byron Nelson, 34, the modern mechanical marvel. Most of the way, Jones matched Nelson shot for shot. Bobby's haymaker swing, accentuated wrist motion, and hula hip motion seemed incurably individualistic beside Byron's three-quarters swing, and minimum of motion.

On the eleventh hole (Dogwood), Jones hooked into deep trouble. Kibitzer Walter Hagen, along for the walk, advised Bobby: "Take your time at the top of your swing, as you did when you wrecked me and Gene Sarazen. . . . Get lazy again." Jones did, and played the last seven holes in even par. Next day, Bobby edged Byron one stroke with a 72--his best competitive round in a dozen years. But his final score for 72 holes: 302. He finished in 32nd place.

The man who finished first was not Nelson, nor either of golf's other two big names--Sam Snead and Ben Hogan--but a new young master from Springfield, Mo. named Herman Reiser. A year ago 31-year-old Golfer Reiser was a storekeeper on the cruiser Cincinnati. He started in front and stayed there until he canned the last putt for a six-under-par 282.

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