Golf: The Old Pro

Driving through Boston one day in 1952, Julius Boros, 32, the newly crowned U.S. Open champion, decided to run out and play a few holes of golf at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., prize pasture of Brahmin duffers. “Sorry,” he was told. “For members only.” Last week, at 43, Boros finally got to play the course. After 90 holes of golf he struggled through crowds of backslappers on The Country Club’s 18th green to pick up his $17,500 check as the U.S. Open champion of 1963. “They say,” he smiled, “that life begins at 40.”

The years between were relatively drab for Boros. Big, placid and pleasant, he has long been one of pro golfs sturdy citizens, playing a good but unspectacular game. He went home with $37,032 in 1952, the first time he won the Open (sportswriters called it a fluke), and took $63,121 in 1955. But he made only $5,595 in 1953, $5,358 in 1956, and in 13 years on the tour he won only nine tournaments. As he got older, it began to look as if he might not win another. His shoulders ached from bursitis; tendon trouble swelled his fingers until they looked, someone said, “like sausages left too long on the broiler.” To top it off, somebody swiped his favorite eleven-year-old putter in Augusta last April.

But things like that do not seem to bother Boros—and this spring his game began to click. In the space of a month, ,he won two big tournaments (the COlonial National Invitation and the Buick Open), boosted his 1963 winnings to $43,680—fourth (behind Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Tony Lema) on the tour. When it came time to choose sides for the Open, more than one of Boros’ fellow pros picked him to win.

The course seemed to suit his careful, never long, rarely short style. Brookline was chosen because it was the place where Francis Ouimet, an unheralded 20-year-old ex-caddy, stunned the golfing world 50 years ago by beating the great Harry Vardon and Ted Ray, thus ending forever Britain’s domination of the game. It is a dainty, tidy course, only 6,870 yds. long, but for the Open the U.S. Golf Association turned it into something resembling the South Dakota Badlands.

The fairways were pinched in to only 30 yds. wide in spots. All but six holes were “blind”—meaning that golfers could not even see the greens on approach shots. And the greens themselves were small, slick and snaky. Winds rising to 45 m.p.h. raked the fairways, turned the greens hard and slick. At times, the gusts seemed to come from every direction, spattering sand in players’ faces, carrying well-stroked shots into the rough. On the 14th fairway, Tony Lema tossed a handful of grass into the air, stared stupefied as the grass soared straight upward. Of 401 rounds played, only five were below par 71—incredible in this day of precision golf. There were so many climatic complaints that it was soon called “the Crybaby Open.” “This persnickety blankety-blank course,” muttered aging (51) Sam Snead, his hopes of finally winning the Open shattered after rounds of 74-75-79-83. “My disappointment and frustration have been extreme,” allowed youthful (23) Jack Nicklaus, his hopes for a second straight Open title crushed when he bogeyed the first three holes and failed to survive the 36-hole cut.

But Julius Boros just played calmly along, clicking off his drives, punching his irons low into the roaring wind, taking a bogey here and there, but mostly getting his par. After 72 holes he was nine over at 293. No one did any better. With Brookline’s bogeyman making their lives miserable, both Arnold Palmer and Jackie Cupit also wound up with 293. And so the Open went into a three-way playoff.

Next day’s 18 holes were over almost from the start. An all-night bout with the G.I.s left Palmer weak and weary; on the first tee, he duck-hooked his drive deep into The Country Club’s barbed-wire rough. Cupit hung on a bit longer, but the tension caught up with him on the third hole, where he took a double-bogey six. Boros, playing safe, sure “money golf,” turned the front nine in 33—two under par. By the time the three players finally got within TV camera range on the 15th hole, he was three strokes ahead of Cupit, seven ahead of Palmer. The final scores: Boros 70, Cupit 73, Palmer 76.

“Anybody want to play another nine?” asked Julie Boros, the second oldest* Open champion ever.

-The oldest: Ted Ray, who was also 43, but 26 days older when he won in 1920.