"What It Takes"

"Someone on the course may have one over par on the last three holes for 287 but the man in the clubhouse who already has 287 is in a better spot. . . ."

This sage comment on "What It Takes To Win" was contributed to the program of the 40th U. S. Open tournament by famed Robert Tyre Jones Jr., present at New Jersey's Baltusrol Golf Club last week as a spectator. If, sitting in the locker room after he had finished playing, he had chanced to read it, Golfer Harry Cooper of Chicago might have felt reassured. Cooper had just posted not 287 but 284. This was the best score ever made in the Open, two strokes better than the record made by Chick Evans at Minikahda in 1916. only one stroke over the British Open Record made by Gene Sarazen in 1932. The only golfer in the field who still had a chance of beating it was an obscure young Italian professional named Anthony Manero who, playing 20 minutes behind Cooper, now needed exactly one over par on the last three holes to tie. Cooper, however, was in no state of mind for casual reading. Instead he was experiencing those moments of total recall which, an essential part of their favorite pastime, are even more inevitable for good golfers than for bad.

If he had been able to remember something other than the shots he himself had inexcusably wasted--a 3-ft. putt on the 14th, a pitch into a bunker on the 15th, making his last round a 73 instead of the 71 it should have been--Cooper last week would have had food for pleasant recollection as he cast back over his opponents' failures.

First day of the 40th U. S. Open was a surprise to the field of 164 players assembled from 28 golfing districts as the best the U.S. had to offer. Baltusrol's Upper course--entirely distinct from the Lower, where the Amateur was played ten years ago--proved unexpectedly easy. Fourteen scores were under par 72. After two rounds, the field was cut to the low 60. Seventeen golfers tied for 60th with 151. Defending Champion Sam Parks, who profited less from his title than any other Open winner since the War, was eliminated with a score of 152.

When the field of 76 went out to play the last two rounds, a dozen golfers were bunched in the lead all within four strokes of each other. Cooper, nicknamed "Light Horse Harry" because he plays without the exaggerated caution of most of his colleagues, made a 70 which was spectacular because it included an explosion shot that dropped into the cup at the 16th, a 45-ft. putt that did the same thing at the 17th. For his fourth round he had a shaky 73 which was still good enough to make his final score look solid. Dour-faced old Macdonald Smith, who tied with his brother for the Open in 1910 and has narrowly missed winning it more often than any other golfer in the world, had needed to gain five strokes to tie. He gained only one. Handsome Victor Ghezzi, needing a final 71, had taken 81. If he had further doubts last week as he waited for Manero to finish, Cooper could have thankfully reflected that lightning rarely strikes twice in the same place. In the 1927 Open, he posted what looked like a winning 301. Tommy Armour tied it, beat him in the playoff.

"The best position, in my opinion, alter 36 holes is two or three, or even four shots behind. ..." This sage comment was also among Robert Tyre Jones's program notes. Golfer Tony Manero. who learned most of his golf, like the famed Turnfesa brothers, on the ragged plot of grass behind the caddy house of the Fairview Country Club at Elmsford, N. Y., finished the second round two strokes behind the two leaders, one be hind Cooper. While Cooper was making his third-round 70, Manero was getting an un distinguished 73. However, unlike the gallery, Manero did not feel that this put him out of the running. Instead, he played the first nine holes of his fourth round in a brilliant 33.

Standing at the 16th tee, while Cooper waited at the clubhouse, Manero needed one over par to tie. He also needed three pars for a 68. He got neither. His first putt at the 16th green dropped into the cup for a birdie. He played the next two holes in par and finished with a new course record of 67 for 282 and the U. S. Open Championship.

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