Hold That Trap

Like big-time athletes everywhere, professional golfers give and take a lot of good-natured ribbing. To fellow players, Jack Nicklaus is endearingly known as "Ohio Fats" and "The Great Blobbo." Last week at Akron's Firestone Country Club, the ribbing got out of hand and into headlines, and nearly ruined the $75,000 World Series of Golf.

Chatting with reporters before the match, Nicklaus allowed as how Arnold Palmer did not really rate a place in the four-man competition that is for winners of the P.G.A. and Masters (Nicklaus), the U.S. Open (Julius Boros), and the British Open (Bob Charles). "Arnie shouldn't be here," joked Nicklaus. "After all, he was an also-ran." He kicked Arnie's chair, and everyone laughed self-consciously. But next morning the headlines screamed: JACK LABELS ARNIE AN "ALSO-RAN."

With the foursome on the first tee, Arnie's army got the drift and cheered itself hoarse as Palmer, gulping cortisone pills to ease the pain of a bursitis attack in his right shoulder, one-putted six of the first nine holes. For Nicklaus there was open hostility: he ignored it for 17 holes, and then his approach to the 18th green bounced through a sand trap. "Hold! Hold!" shouted the crowd; a loud groan went up when the ball flipped safely past.

It took Palmer to calm everyone down. On the first tee next morning, he wrapped the unhappy Nicklaus in a bear hug. "Hi there, ole buddy!" grinned Palmer, and the two marched down the fairway arm in arm. Able to concentrate again, Nicklaus regained his steady brilliance, was able to open a two-stroke lead by the end of the first nine. Palmer managed to pull even on the twelfth hole, but then on the 13th he punched a two iron smack into a tree and wound up with a double bogey that ended all chances.

For the second year in a row, Jack Nicklaus pocketed golf's richest prize: a check for $50,000. "This," said Ohio Fats contentedly, "will buy a lot of potatoes."

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