Sport: Ins v. Outs

Picking all-star teams is a thankless task. Invariably—whether it is an All-America football, All-Star baseball, Davis Cup or Olympic team—its pickers are heckled by grumblers who think they could do a better job. Last year, when the Professional Golfers Association selected ten pros to represent the U. S. in Novem ber’s biennial Ryder Cup matches with Great Britain, the pickers were greeted not only with the customary chipped beefing but with a sizzling roast by fiery little Gene Sarazen — omitted from the team for the first time since the Cup was put up in 1927.

Such a team — Byron Nelson, Henry Picard, Sam Snead, Ralph Guldahl, Horton Smith, Paul Runyan, Dick Metz, Jim my Hines, Harold McSpaden, Vic Ghezzi! “From the boys they overlooked I could pick ten that would beat the pants off that team,” sneered Sarazen — with a special glare at his old rival, Walter Hagen, chosen captain for the seventh time.

The P. G. A. pickers smarted but kept mum. When World War II canceled the Ryder Cup matches, Sarazen’s squawk went the way of most sport squawks. Last month, however, when P. G. A. bigwigs were looking for ways & means to raise money for the Red Cross, they remembered it, decided to call Sarazen’s bluff.

No windbag, the little Roman promptly named his challengers: Old-timers Tom my Armour, Harry Cooper, Billie Burke, Craig Wood, Jimmy Thomson, Al Watrous, Lawson Little and Newcomers Jim my Demaret, Ben Hogan, Ed Oliver.

Last week, before 7,000 eyewitnesses, the prestige of U. S. sport pickers was put to a test. On Detroit’s dog-tiring, tricky Oakland Hills course, Gene Sarazen’s “leftouts” teed up against Walter Hagen’s “ins” in a two-day challenge match under Ryder Cup rules (four two-ball foursomes, eight singles matches).*

At play’s end the first day, it looked sad indeed for Captain Sarazen. Only Demaret & Hogan, the two Texans who have burned up U. S. fairways the past six months, came through with victory in the Scotch foursomes—i up over Sam Snead & Ralph Guldahl. Trailing 1-to-3, the “leftouts” took on their singles assignments with grim determination. Even Captain Sarazen went into the fray. But the best they could do was split the day’s matches with the rightful Ryder Cuppers, to lose the two-day battle 7-to-5.

Undaunted, Sarazen bellowed: “I’m not ready to admit defeat.”

* Two members of the ten-man teams are spares.