Five Pros for the Future

EVERY golf season has its implausible, unexpected tournament winners, but 1971 has been something special. First of all, J.C. (for Jesse Carlyle) Snead, 29, a nephew of Golfing Great Sam Snead and a onetime minor league outfielder who was No. 112 on the P.G.A. money list last year, made himself $52,000 richer by finishing No. 1 in both the Tucson and Doral-Eastern Opens. Then Brian Allin, 26, a redheaded rookie who weighs all of 145 Ibs., won the $38,000 top prize in the Greater Greensboro Open. Hubert Green, 24, yet another rookie, made off with $25,000 by winning the Houston Invitational.

As golf has grown more popular, the pro prodigies have grown not only more numerous but vastly more proficient. Able to polish their game on college golf scholarships and then on the "satellite tournaments"--the P.G.A.'s equivalent of baseball's minor leagues--today's rising young pros are better trained than ever. Many are all-round athletes who in years past would have been inclined to pursue careers in other sports. In the past decade, though, the total purses have increased sevenfold to $7,180,500. As Sam Snead, still active at 59, points out: "With this much money floating around a man has just got to play golf. Besides, what other sport can you play for 30 years?" Five of the most impressive of the young pros:

JERRY HEARD, 24, is sponsored by ten members of his country club in Visalia, Calif., who go by the name of the Heard Corp. A strapping 6 ft., 195-pounder with driving strength and putting finesse, he quit Fresno State College after three years to join the tour in 1969, has so far returned $113,280 on his sponsors' initial investment of $ 15,600. "I used to think winning $1,000 was a big deal," he says. "Now that I realize I can win much more than that, I'm not overwhelmed."

LARRY HINSON, 26, a string-bean-lean blond from Douglas, Ga., won the 1966 N.C.A.A. golf title while a senior at East Tennessee State. Though his left arm is slightly withered from a boyhood bout with polio, he is solidly accurate from tee to green. In 1969, his first full year on the tour, he won $54,267. Last season he pocketed $120,897 and was the eighth-highest scorer on the tour. "I want to win the big four --our Open, the British Open, the P.G.A. and the Masters--then I'll retire. I know what that sounds like, but I really think I can do it."

HALE IRWIN, 26, a spectacled, soft-spoken golfer, might look like a Sunday afternoon duffer, but at the University of Colorado he was All-Big Eight football defensive back as well as the 1967 N.C.A.A. golf champion. Spurning an offer from the N.F.L. St. Louis Cardinals, he turned golf pro four seasons ago, and has since won $111,151. Nevertheless, he considers himself still in a period of adjustment. "In football, you can get rid of your emotions," he says. "You can tackle somebody hard, for instance. But in golf the pressure keeps building, and you have to learn how to control it."

JOHN MILLER, 24, a lanky, mod San Franciscan who sports candy-striped bell-bottoms on the links, began hitting balls into a driving net in his garage at the age of five. This season he belted his way to a second-place finish in the Masters and third in the Jacksonville Open; currently, he is among the top 20 money winners, with 1971 earnings, so far, of $55,849. An elder in the Mormon Church, he attended Brigham Young University but quit before graduating to join the tour in 1969. "A college degree," he explains, "is not going to help you sink those two-footers."

GRIER JONES, 25, is considered by some veterans one of the most impressive young pros to join the tour in years. A star high school fullback in Wichita, Kans., he was wooed by football scouts from several colleges. Instead he chose to go to Oklahoma State on a golf scholarship, where he won the 1968 N.C.A.A. championship. Relying on a rhythmically compact swing, he won $37,193 in his first full season on the tour, and was named the 1969 Rookie of the Year. Off to a so-so start after winning $55,913 last season, Jones echoes the sentiments of all the pro prodigies when he says: "My day is coming."

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