Battle of Baltusrol

For a couple of days the toughest competitor in the National Open championship at New Jersey's Baltusrol Golf Club seemed to be the course itself: its dipped and rolling greens, its narrow dogleg fairways, its devilish rough. Patient and unforgiving, it took on the nation's best golfers.

Billy Joe Patton, the bold and nerveless amateur who did so well in the Masters, got off fast with a field-leading 69. one under par. Next day he was far off the pace, with a 76. Sam Snead, great golfer and perennial money winner, still trying for his first Open title, was in trouble from the beginning. Gary Middlecoff, Lloyd Mangrum, Dick Mayer--usually reliable performers--stumbled and came to the halfway mark four strokes back.

On the last day, with two rugged rounds ahead, handsome, young (23) Gene Littler, last year's amateur champion only lately turned pro, was a nervous two strokes in the lead. Pressing hard to hang on, defending Champion Ben Hogan was in a tie for second. His running mate was Ed Furgol, 37, a tall, gaunt pro from St. Louis' Westwood Club with easily the most distinctive style in the tournament.

Anyone at Baltusrol could have told Ed what was wrong with his game. But it was 25 years too late to be helpful. As a kid on a Utica, N.Y. playground, he had broken his left arm. It never mended properly. Now it was permanently crooked and withered. To balance his swing, Furgol had learned to keep his right arm bent. Even so, he was outhitting some of the best at Baltusrol. And he was playing steady, accurate golf. Not until the 18th hole of the last round was he in real trouble. Then he hooked his drive deep into the rough. Trees blocked his route to the green. But by then he had the tough course licked. He curved a long, lovely iron shot out onto another fairway, was on the apron of the green in three, chipped up neatly and dropped a tricky, downhill putt for his par five. He had finished with an impressive 284, and he was ahead of the pack.

After that, only Littler had a chance to catch him. No one else was close. But Littler needed a birdie 4 on the 18th for a tie. He missed an eight-foot putt, and Ed Furgol was the new champion. For sad Sam Snead it was small consolation to remember that before the tournament he had judged Baltusrol correctly. The winner, he had said, would card 284--just four over par.

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