The High Rollers

The steak and drinks were on the house. The sated crowd in the main ballroom of Las Vegas' Desert Inn pushed heavily back from the tables and lit up complimentary cigars. Then, to a man, they reached for their checkbooks. These were no ordinary freeloaders; these were fast-money boys, big gamblers, high rollers. They were assembled to buy shares of the pot in the Desert Inn's fourth annual Tournament of Champions.

For the golfers themselves, the Tournament of Champions is the second-richest competition in the U.S. ($37,500 in prizes).* For gamblers, professional and amateur, it offers golf's biggest Calcutta pool, i.e., player auction. And it offers just the sort of risk the high rollers like to take. There is no house cut; there are no handicaps to figure; the field is small and brimful of class (eligible players must have won a P.G.A.-sponsored tournament during the past year). So when Los Angeles Auctioneer Milt Wershow jumped onto the stage, the boys were ready with their money.

Long & Strong. "How much am I bid for Mike Souchak?" called Wershow as he got ready to knock down one of last year's top moneywinners. "Who's he?" yelled a wiseacre. Wershow ignored the heckler. "He is long and very strong. He likes the course. He is playing well. How much for Souchak?" Quickly the bidding climbed, and Souchak, for $11,000, went to a bidder named Walter Marty, reportedly representing eastern gamblers.

Cigar smoke thickened, and as the Scotch bottles emptied, so did tongues. Wershow droned on. "I have pleasure in selling Lloyd Mangrum. He has his house built and paid for. He is relaxed and eating his food." Mangrum went for $15,500. "I give you Arnold Palmer. Short backswing; no choker." Palmer's sale price: $7,000. Wershow found his biggest sales resistance when he tried to peddle last year's Open Champion Jack Fleck. "They say he's on the stick again," said the anxious auctioneer, but the bidding stalled at $5,000. "Where's your gambling blood, fellows? He's the national champ." Fleck fell for a meager $6,500.

Comedians Bob Hope and Jimmy Durante took turns spelling Wershow. Busy cracking wise, Hope accidentally bought the same player he had lost money on last year: Bo Wininger. "My God!" he shouted. "Don't tell me I've got him! I don't want him." But Hope had him, for $6,500. Hope did better with Dentist Gary Middlecoff, "master of the chip and middle inlay." Middlecoff brought $16,000. Durante managed to sell Ted Kroll for $10,000. ("Didja ever see this fella Kroll's legs? A regular croquet player.") Top price ($16,500) went for last year's winner, Gene Littler. Littler went to Singer Frankie Laine, who had bought him last year and won $72,900 in the divvying up. Frankie's purchase brought the pot to $192,000.

Side Bets. As in the usual big-money Calcutta, when the tournament progressed, gamblers hedged their big bets by selling shares of good men to others, often in fragments that added up to two or three times the auction price. There also was a lot of side-betting; bookies patrolled every hotel lobby, the odds pasted in their hats. One high roller estimated that well over $1,000,000 was wagered outside the Calcutta before the play ended. All of this was all right with Las Vegas. Golf gambling has an aura of respectability, helps bring in the suckers for craps and roulette.

The golfers, too, had plenty of incentive. Each competitor got $1,000 just for teeing off. Everything, including expenses for wives, was on the cuff in the most luxurious surroundings. Besides prize money (which starts at $10,000 for first place), the top seven finishers could expect a 10% cut from their Calcutta owners. Last year Littler's bonus from Laine included his caddy fees, a wristwatch and about $7,500.

This time, on the carefully tended oasis of the Desert Inn Country Club, Littler's machined swing seemed impervious to the winds and dust devils of the demanding course. He was long off the tee, his putts dropped from 35 and 40 feet away. Midway, he was six strokes up on Gary Middlecoff. At the end of 72 holes, Littler was still four strokes in front and, for the second time, walked off with a $10,000 bagful of bright Las Vegas silver dollars. It gave Crooner Laine Calcutta winnings of $69,120 to sing about.

*The richest: George S. May's $200,000 "world" tournament at Tam O'Shanter in Chicago.

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