"Little Poison"

Except for five-time Champion Walter Hagen, who preferred the sidelines after his recently completed round-the-world exhibition tour, and onetime Champion Tommy Armour, who was ill, all the topflight professional golfers of the U. S. met last week in the Poconos, on the Shawnee Country Club course. It was their one big match-play tournament of the year: the championship of the Professional Golfers Association.

Accustomed to playing against the Scoreboard in their year-round circuit of medal-play tournaments, many an able pro succumbs to fluttering nerves in a man-to-man contest. But to most U. S. pros there is a hobgoblin even more terrifying: a wispy, 135-lb. colleague affectionately known as "Little Poison."

"Little Poison" is Paul Runyan, who learned his golf in Hot Springs, Ark., teaches it at White Plains's Metropolis Club and never ceases to concentrate on it in tournament play. Ever since 1934, when he defeated his onetime boss, slugging Craig Wood, in the final of the P. G. A. championship and went on to become the No. 1 pro that year, Paul Runyan has made a specialty of killing off golfing titans with his deadly potions of accuracy and control.

Last week at Shawnee, 30-year-old Paul Runyan lived up to his reputation. First he eliminated Levi Lynch. Then he put out Tony Manero, Ray Mangrum, Horton Smith and Henry Picard, four of the game's master shotmakers. Facing him in the final was the biggest titan of them all, young Sam Snead, leading money-winning pro of the year and quite a bugaboo himself. Sam Snead of White Sulphur Springs had reached the final 23 strokes under par (for 165 holes), and was 2-to-1 favorite.

But Lightweight Paul Runyan, whose tee shots carry no further than the average week-end golfer's, played the sort of game that breaks an opponent's spirit. Although outdriving him 40 to 50 yards on each hole, Snead watched his advantage melt around the greens where Runyan's game was hotter than the noonday sun. At the end of the morning round, Titan Snead was ready to throw his clubs in the nearby Delaware. He had not succeeded in winning a hole. Runyan was 5 up, had been leading ever since the third hole.

Whatever hope harassed young Snead might have imbibed with his lunch soon evaporated in the afternoon round. On the 24th green he won his first hole. On the 27th, he was 7 down. On the 29th, White Plains licked White Sulphur. Paul Runyan had won his second P. G. A. championship with a score of 8 and 7, the most decisive margin since the tournament was inaugurated in 1916.

Pre-tournament favorites like Denny Shute (who had hoped to win this year's tournament for the third year in a row), Ralph Guldahl (who had hoped to add the P. G. A. to his U. S. Open title), and Gene Sarazen (who had hoped to come through again for the fourth time) all agreed that they were just as well pleased that they had not lasted until the final round.

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