Sweet Revenge

The Los Angeles Open, first event on the winter pro tour, is hardly the ultimate test of golf. But it does have $50,000 in prize money, and until last week, it enjoyed a certain notoriety as one of the only two major U.S. tournaments that Arnold Palmer has never won (the other: the P.G.A. Three-time Masters cham pion, winner of the U.S. and British Opens and of more money in one year ($81,448 last season) than any other golfer in history, Palmer had played in the tournament seven times, had never finished better than tenth. On the 508-yd., par-5 ninth hole at Los Angeles' Rancho Municipal Golf Course, there is even an aluminum plaque to commemorate an event that Palmer would just as soon forget. In 1961. gambling for an eagle on the hole, he hit four balls out of bounds, wound up with a twelve. "What happened?" asked a solicitous friend. Replied Palmer, with remarkable good humor: "I missed a putt for an eleven."

Last week golf's reigning king got his revenge. His tee shots caromed 300 yds. and more down Rancho's rock-hard fairways, his approach shots died quietly inches from the pin, and his putts banged boldly into the cup. At first, other pros hogged the headlines: smooth-swinging Gene Littler led briefly; aging (52 ) Dutch Harrison flashed enough of his old form to take the second-round lead; and Art Wall, the 1959 Masters winner, shot a third-round 67, four strokes under par. But the gallery paid little attention. By the time Palmer teed off for his final round, three strokes behind Wall, 5,000 jostling fans had enlisted in Arnie's Army, hoping for another of the blazing finishes that make Palmer the most exciting player in golf. They got it. On the 390-yd., par4 fourth hole. Arnie almost drove the green to set up an easy birdie. He birdied the seventh, the eighth and the ninth, sank a 20-ft. putt on the 10th for his fourth birdie in a row.

All around the course, scoreboards flashed the news of Palmer's rally, and his competitors began to falter. Art Wall bogeyed three holes in a row. Arnie himself faltered momentarily on the 11th: he drove into the rough, overshot the green with his approach, staggered through a double-bogey six. "It was.'' smiled Palmer, "an easy six." Again, on the par-3. 234yd. 17th, Palmer seemed in trouble. His No. 4 iron carried over the green on the nubby apron. 50 ft. from the pin. Palmer studied the lie. He pulled out a putter, punched the ball--and watched it roll smack into the cup for a birdie.

His score for that last round was a sizzling 66; at the end, his nearest competitor was three strokes behind. Jack Nicklaus. Palmer's heir presumptive, wound up tied for 24th. Other pros just shrugged. Watching Palmer pocket the $9.000 winner's check. Mike Souchak shook his head. ''Here we go again.'' he murmured. "New year, same story."

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