Sport: The Masters'

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Most sentimental and (next to the Open) toughest U. S. golf tournament is the Masters', played on Bobby Jones's "dream course" in Augusta, Ga. Most golfers hope that Bobby Jones, now 37, paunchy and a 40-to-1 shot, may still win this tournament. As the sixth annual Masters' began last week, favorites were Open Champion Ralph Guldahl, Hillbilly Sam Snead and lanky Henry Picard, last year's winner.

Bobby Jones cracked his drives as lustily and hit his irons as crisply as ever. But when a golfer competes in only one tournament a year, as Jones does now, the shots that count are made on the putting green. Jones began to miss easy putts, finished with a 76 that put him out of the running.

The top money players stayed in the money. Finishing with a smoking 68 Sam Snead broke the tournament record by two strokes with 280, seemed the winner. Ralph Guldahl started the last nine needing a 33, three under par, to beat him. He got a birdie, two pars. Then he hit a weak, 22O-yd. drive on the 480-yd. 13th and his jig seemed to be up. His ball was in a downhill lie; yawning in front of the green 260 yards away was a deep, water-filled ravine. Without hesitation Guldahl took a spoon instead of a safe iron, swung with all his 200 pounds, sent the ball whistling across the ravine to the green, six feet from the cup. When he sank the putt for an eagle, the tournament was his. His record 72-hole total: 279, nine under par.