After 30 Years

Whether by design or accident, each one of the seven sons of Vitale Turnesa, onetime day laborer at New York's Fairview Country Club became, in turn, a caddy and then a golfer of note. Today, the Turnesa boys make up golf's royal family. Last week, Vitale's sixth son, Jim, 38, added another jewel to the family crown: the P.O.A. championship.

A match play tournament--one bad round and you're out--the P.G.A. has long eluded the Turnesa family. In 1927, a year after he lost the U.S. Open by a stroke to Bobby Jones, Joe Turnesa lost in the P.O.A. final to Walter Hagen. In the 1942 final Jim Turnesa lost to Sam Snead. In 1948 Mike Turnesa lost to Ben Hogan. That was the year that Brother Willie, the only amateur in the family, won his second U.S. amateur title to go along with his 1947 British championship.

At the Louisville final last week, Jim Turnesa met Melvin ("Chick") Harbert, 37, a slam-bang hitter who had also failed as a P.G.A. finalist (against Jim Ferrier in 1947). Harbert's booming drives consistently outdistanced Turnesa in the morning 18 holes. At the lunchtime break, Turnesa, after getting in and out of five traps, was three holes down to Harbert's 2-under-par 70. Turnesa, as spunky as he is chunky (5 ft. 6 in., 155 Ibs.), refused to give up. Not until the 32nd hole of the scheduled 36-hole final did Jim Turnesa even the match--and he had to sink a 15-foot birdie putt to do it. Said one knowing spectator:"That little runt won't let Harbert off the hook now."

As it turned out, Harbert was caught on a hook of his own making. With the match all even after the 35th, Harbert's hooked drive on the 438-yard 36th nestled plunk behind a left-fairway fir tree, stymied from the green. Harbert could only pitch out into the fairway. Turnesa drove straight and true, pitched dead to the green, holed out in two putts and won the match with a par, one up. Said Turnesa, speaking for the rest of the family: "We've been trying to get our name on that trophy for over 30 years. Now we've finally made it."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.