The Big Open

It was no country for old men. Ben Hogan, 46, shared the lead in the first round, but could not stand the pace. Sam Snead, 45, got hot for one three-under-par round, then subsided. By the final 18 holes of the U.S. Open golf tournament at the Winged Foot Country Club course in suburban Mamaroneck, N.Y., young (27) Bill Casper Jr. held a three-stroke lead. On the last day Bill Casper, golf's best putter, bogeyed three of the last eight holes, but finished with a 72-hole total of 282, two over par. Then he sat back to wait, and wait. Into contention shot a pair of rugged challengers: Mike Souchak, 32, onetime Duke University All-America football player, and Bob Rosburg, 32, onetime captain of Stanford University's N.C.A.A. champion golf team.

Burly Mike Souchak birdied the tough 16th hole to move within a stroke of the lead, but an overstroked approach gave him a bogey on the 18th and he was out of the running. Rosburg, who grips a club like a baseball bat, sank a chip shot and 30-ft. putt for successive birdies on the 11th and 12th. But on the final hole he needed to sink a 40-ft. putt to tie. It stopped a foot short, and Bill Casper was the U.S. Open champion.

The only son of a San Diego plasterer, Casper caddied at the San Diego Country Club. He developed his putting touch out of convenience. "I'd practice driving an hour and get tired," he explains, "so I started chipping and putting to rest. I found it was more fun than driving." Unlike many top golfers, he has no desire to practice ("I hate it"). After four years of nominal service in the Navy, during which he spent most of his time developing driving ranges in the San Diego area, Casper hit the professional circuit, picked up his first check ($33.33) for finishing 30th in the Western Open in 1955. Last year he earned $52,030.

This year flu forced him to give up golf for two months. Until last week's triumph, he had not played in a month. Casper's putting faltered this spring, but for the Open it was wondrous. In four rounds he took only 115 putts. Said the new champion: "I knew that as soon as the putting came back, I'd win one."

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