Sport: Wanted: Less Sunshine

The golfing duffer thinks of hazards in terms of hooks, slices, traps, bunkers, putts that won’t drop. These things are nothing much in the life of P. G. A. Champion Byron Nelson. He is used to them, takes them as they come. What gets him down is good weather. Says he: “Give me an overcast day, and I’ll give you a low golf score. Comes sunshine and the score goes up. Why? Because your eyes get tired and you lose your ability to judge distance.”

In the bright Florida sunshine last week the lean, taciturn ex-open champion armored himself against his old opponent. Bucking tough competition in St. Petersburg’s $5,000 open tournament, he wore a cap pulled down over his eyes. It didn’t help: he finished out of the big money. Ruefully observing that a tournament golfer might add five years to his business career if he could keep out of the sun, Golfer Nelson pointed disgustedly to his bushy brows, said: “Notice how large those muscles are? That’s from squinting.”