Victory at Verdun

Virtually no honor in golf has escaped Jack Nicklaus' hammy hands in the five short years since he turned pro. Winner of the U.S. Open as a 22-year-old rookie, Ohio Fats has taken the P.O.A. championship once, the Masters three times. The only major title left was the British Open, which he had tried for and lost four times.

Last week Jack got what Jack wanted, but it took an awful lot of desire. The course this year was Scotland's Muirfield links beside the Firth of Forth, a seaside torture pit that resembles Verdun after the battle. Bunk ers like shell craters pock the narrow fairways, and the thick, encroaching rough grows three feet high in spots. "You need a search warrant to get in that stuff," complained South Africa's Harold Henning. Adding to the misery, the howling winds dried the already fast greens to billiard-table speed. "It'll be the same for everybody," sighed Nicklaus. "That's the only thing you can say in its favor."

What was in Jack's favor was his enormous strength--to blast the ball into the wind and slash through the matted rough. In the first two rounds, he managed to wedge his way out of the weeds for nine birdies and a five-under-par 137, one stroke ahead of England's Peter Butler and three up on California's Phil Rodgers. There were some hairy moments on the third day, when Rodgers shot a fantastic 30 on the back nine (par 35) to take a two-stroke lead, while Jack faltered to a bogey-filled 75, ended just a stroke ahead of Doug Sanders and two shots in front of Arnold Palmer and Welsh man Dave Thomas.

Then Jack pulled himself together, and some of the others fell apart. Phil Rodgers dropped out with a final round of 76; Palmer flailed around in the rough near the 10th hole for a miserable triple-bogey seven that took him out of contention. The tournament be came Sanders, Thomas and Nicklaus, all tied at one under par. Sanders and Thomas finished early, with scores of 283, and sat around the clubhouse waiting for slow, methodical Jack. Out on the battlefield, Nicklaus slammed a perfect drive down the middle of the 17th fairway, then hit a magnificent iron to the green within 15 feet of the cup. Barely missing the putt for an eagle three, he settled for a birdie on the par-five hole. That was it. A routine par on the 18th, and Jack finally had his British Open--by one stroke.

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