Prize for a Popcorn Hitter

The way Dave Stockton tells it, he was approaching the 17th green in the final round of last week's P.O.A. championship when he looked up and found himself surrounded by Arnold Palmer fans. "Everybody was yelling 'Yea, Arnie!' Then some little kid whispered 'Come on, Dave,' and one of Arnie's fans said 'Keep quiet.' So I turned around and said, 'Leave him alone; he's doing all right.' "

Stockton may never have a legion of adoring fans like Arnie's Army. Who does? But after his victory last week in one of professional golf's most prestigious tournaments, the rangy, 28-year-old Californian certainly has the beginnings of Dave's Dragoons. Unsung and largely unknown, he was the only man among 70 golfers to beat par with a one-under-279 for 72 holes around Tulsa's notoriously tough Southern Hills course. In the 100DEG heat, Jack Nicklaus soared to a horrendous 76 on the second round and Lee Trevino posted a pair of embarrassing 77s. But Stockton calmly put together a pair of even-par 70s, then on the third round took the course apart with a brilliant 66 that included seven birdies. Going into the fourth and final round, the only star in sight was Arnold Palmer--and Arnie was five strokes behind.

From Hoots to Groans. The Sunday pairings put Stockton head to head with Palmer, which is calculated to fluster any golfer. "Go get 'em, Arnie!" screamed the Army. "Shank it. Bury it in the sand," they hooted at Stockton. But then the hoots turned to groans.

On the seventh hole, a 385-yd. par four, Stockton chose a wedge for his second shot, lofted a lovely 120-yd. pitch to the green: the ball hit a foot beyond the cup and took a backward hop in for an impossible eagle two. On the ninth hole, another tough par four, he blasted a six-iron approach out of a bunker and through some branches 158 yds. to a green he could not even see; the ball rolled dead two feet from the hole, and he had a birdie three. On the 13th, Stockton's second shot splashed into a pond; he took a one-stroke penalty, dropped another ball and hit a wedge to within a foot of the pin to avoid a double bogey.

By the time they reached the 15th hole, Stockton was still five strokes ahead, and that, to all intents and purposes, was it. Dave had room to bogey three of the last four holes and putt out at the 18th a clear two-stroke winner. Cool and self-contained all week long, he was suddenly seized by the enormity of his achievement. Looking up at his pregnant wife Cathy waiting for him, he suddenly burst into tears. "She just waved and that was enough." he said. "I was gone. I told my caddie to bring me a towel."

Accident in the Surf. The P.G.A. victory marked the end of a long, uphill fight for Stockton. The son of a former amateur champ and teaching pro, Dave picked up his first club at the age of three, was a serious, par-shooting golfer at 15. Then came a near disaster. A surfing accident left Stockton with six cracked vertebrae, and for a while it was doubtful that he would be able to engage in any sport, much less championship golf. The back eventually healed, but he has had to avoid contact sports and now wears a half-inch lift in his left shoe. Because of his physical handicap, he could never become a powerhouse like Nicklaus and Palmer, booming out 300-yd. drives. "I'm strictly a popcorn hitter," he says. Yet he learned to keep his drives straight and developed a deadly accurate short game. There was something else, too: the power of positive thinking. "If you just think about what you want to do," he says, "your mind will correct your faults."

Even so, Dave's parents frowned on a golfing career when he graduated from the University of Southern California in 1964. They voted for law school. When Dave insisted, they agreed to let him try and to pay part of his tour expenses for three years. He won his first tournament and $54,333 in 1967; and going into the P.G.A., he had three more victories and $300,000 in winnings to his credit. The P.G.A. added a handsome $40,000 to the total, but it wasn't the money that pleased him most. "It's the title," he said. "It means that I can enter any tournament I want without qualifying for the next ten years. I think I'm over the hump now. You'll be seeing a lot of me."

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