Tough & Tiring

All week things had been breaking right for Bob Sweeny, New York socialite, R.A.F. veteran, and one of the U.S.'s distinguished amateur golfers. For the sixth time since 1932, 43-year-old Sweeny was shooting for the U.S. Amateur Golf Championship, and he was shooting some of the best golf of his career. On the way to the finals he breezed past such steady competitors as last year's runner-up, Dale Morey, and Connecticut's Dr. Ted Lenczyk. Now, in the last round, he seemed a good bet to upset the tournament favorite: Arnold Palmer, a young (24) ex-coast guardsman from Cleveland, who had yet to handle his first man-sized set of clubs the year Sweeny won the British Amateur (1937).

Palmer had been making rough work of it, spraying shots all over the tough, tree-dotted course at the Country Club of Detroit. He had to go through a tiring 39-hole match, longest semifinal in the tournament's records, to top Cleveland's Ed Meister, onetime Yale golf captain. In the finals, however, Palmer settled down. He shot the first four holes in par. But it was a discouraging performance. Sweeny's deft and delicate putter earned him three birdies and sent him three-up. Still, it was Sweeny himself who gave Palmer hope. On the fifth tee he put his arm around his rugged (5 ft. 11 in., 170 Ibs.) rival and said, "This can't last forever."

It didn't. Still two down starting the last 18, Palmer continued to press his opponent. And in the hot, sticky afternoon, the older man began to weaken. Three times during the match Palmer pulled even; twice Sweeny held him off. Then, with a fine par 4 on the 32nd, Palmer went ahead. On the next hole he shot a birdie 3 to go two-up. Dog-tired, Sweeny came back to halve the next hole and win the 35th. But from the last tee Sweeny pushed his drive into the rough, chipped up to the green in three. Palmer ran his third shot three inches from the pin. Sweeny shook his head, shook Palmer's hand, conceded the putt and the U.S. Amateur Golf Championship.

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