When TIME'S Sport editor Marshall Smith flew to Fort Worth, Texas to get Ben Hogan's story for the first golf cover TIME has run in ten years,* he found that Hogan had his mind on other things than golf. Like Mr. Blandings, he was building a house, and everything seemed to be wrong with it. According to Hogan, the rooms had been painted the wrong colors, a rug he had won in a golf tournament had been cut wrong, etc. Smith was put to work carrying cartons of household goods from the garage into the house. While sympathizing with Hogan on the hazards of homeowning, he began to get the facts for his story.

He found that Hogan talked spontaneously enough about Fort Worth's summers, the joys of the California climate--and about golf, except when a direct question was asked. One of them, a naive query about putting, produced a horrified "You're not going to say that in your story?" from Hogan. Perfectionist Hogan began to worry and, later, complained: "You're getting this all mixed up." Said Smith: "Look, your game is golf; this story is my business. Let me handle it my way."

Hogan grinned. When Smith asked him, finally, if he thought he could win the forthcoming Los Angeles Open, Hogan, who had laid off golf for eleven weeks, said: "No, it takes at least one tournament to school your swing under pressure after a layoff." He proceeded to verify his prophecy by tying for tenth, and then winning last week's $10,000 Bing Crosby Invitation tournament.

Ben Hogan was the 14th cover story/- that Marshall Smith has written for TIME'S Sport department in the last four years. An ex-prep school swimmer and football player, he confesses to an insider's knowledge of only one sport: horse racing (his father was a horse owner and trainer who made the circuit from Cuba to Montreal for 15 years). Smith, who is 34, came to TIME five years ago via his native Baltimore's Evening Sun, the Providence Star-Tribune and Journal, where he wrote sports and features for seven years, and the NBC news room. Writing for TIME'S Sport department, however, involved a considerable departure from newspaper technique.

Unlike the daily newspapers, which do a first-rate job of sports coverage, TIME is not immediately concerned with who won. Anyone who cares can find that out before the weekly issue of TIME reaches the newsstand. The editors of TIME believe that all of their news columns should be of interest to all readers, and Sport, therefore, has to give the news, satisfy the experts among TIME'S readers, and be clearly understandable to the uninitiated, as well. That is not an easy assignment, and Smith spends considerable time out of the office (e.g., the 1948 Olympic Games in London) keeping abreast of a dozen sports, getting the color, the background, and the "inside" details, that are vital to a successful TIME Sport story.

A cover story gives him a chance to examine a sport, as well as a champion, in considerable detail. In the case of Ben Hogan, a number of people had to be seen before the story assumed its proper focus. After his five days with Hogan, whom he liked and respected, Smith invited the golfer and his wife to come out to the house the next time they were in New York City. However, he added a note of caution : "You may not want to after you've read the cover story." As of last week, it looked as if the Hogans and the Smiths would be getting together soon.

Cordially yours,

*The last golfer to repose there was Johnny Goodman (June 6, 1938).

/-Mel Ott, Davis & Blanchard, Elizabeth Arden, Pauline Betz, Frank Leahy, Leo Durocher, Jake Kramer, Jackie Robinson, Bob Chappuis, Barbara Ann Scott, Eddie Arcaro, Mel Patton, Joe DiMaggio, Ben Hogan.

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