The Lady Golfers

At Georgia's Augusta Country Club, it was Ladies' Day for fair. Hippy, sunburned females overran the tight, exacting course and went ahead with their game even when a gusty windstorm chilled the fairways. Male club members held their tongues, for the invaders were no chattering, once-a-week golfing housewives cluttering up the greens or excavating in the sand traps; they were the 25 top players of the Ladies' Professional Golfers Association. The la dies were winding up their winter's trek with the Titleholders championship, the "Masters tournament" of women's golf.

The pleasant-sounding professional itinerary that had begun in Sea Island and wound down through Florida and Cuba before swinging back to Georgia was far from the vacation it seemed. By last week the tournament travelers already looked a little worn, and the long tournament trail still stretched ahead of them into summer. By the time it was all over, the ladies would have divided up some $145,000 in prize money, and spent much of it for motel rooms and the expenses of keeping overworked care and trailers on the road. Except for the top tournament winners, the lady pros count on added income from sponsoring sporting goods firms to keep them solvent.

Monday for Travel. Despite the rugged routine and close living, the itinerant competitors remain on remarkably good terms through the season. They live for golf, and the tournament grind leaves no patience for prima donnas. Mondays are usually for travel to the next tournament; Tuesdays and Wednesdays are dedicated to practice, mostly with the short irons. (Without the heft to wallop man-sized drives off the tee, the girls have to nibble at par by polishing their approach shots. Their chip shots are deadly, and a delight to watch.) Evenings, for all the gin rummy games or the inevitable cocktail parties, the real pros still find it hard to relax. Given an open stretch of carpet, they are likely to grab a club and practice putting or swing at an imaginary ball.

Made to Order. "I don't know why," said freckle-faced Patricia Jane Berg, 38, at Augusta last week, "but somehow this tournament means more than the others. Everyone sort of naturally points for the Titleholders." Since she won the very first Titleholders in 1937, the chunky (5 ft. 2 1/2 in., 140 Ibs.) Chicago redhead has pointed for it so successfully that she has taken first money five other times. Patty Berg's record puts her far ahead of ailing Babe Didrikson Zaharias, her closest competitor, who took three Titleholder championships (1947, '50, '52). The prize money is $5,000, half of what the men accept as a minimum for a respectable tournament.

Though she had yet to win a tournament this season, experienced Patty Berg started the Titleholders a slight favorite on her record. The tricky course seemed made to order for her careful game. But Patty figured to have trouble with Georgia's own Louise Suggs, 32, current president of the L.P.G.A. and a trim perfectionist on the fairways. With her rhythmic, classical swing, Louise can whip the clubhead around and belt the ball with the assurance of most male pros. Halfway through the 72-hole tournament, Louise Suggs's steady shots had her out in front by one stroke. Behind her, tied for second, were Texan Betty Jameson and South Carolina's Betsy Rawls. Patty Berg was three strokes off the pace.

Slowly, Patty crept up. On the final green, 72 holes of tense, nerve-racking golf behind her, she needed a birdie three to tie Louise. An 11-ft., downhill putt would have done it. The ball rimmed the edge of the cup, but it refused to drop. Winner of the Titleholders: Louise Suggs, with a 72-hole score of 302. Second: Patty Berg, one stroke back. Tied for third: Betsy Rawls and her roommate, Mickey Wright, with 306.

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