Sport: Master of the Masters

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Surveying the Augusta National Golf Club for the first time, a Sunday golfer might be moved to wonder what all the shouting was about. For the site of the annual Masters tournament (and favorite course of President Eisenhower) is a deceptively simple layout, and par seems to invite a licking. But the masters of golf know better. The best pros have to scramble to stay on top at Augusta, and in the first 19 years of the tournament no amateur ever won the Masters. Last week, when 84 players teed off for the 20th Masters, the expectations and the odds were all against the 21 amateur entrants.

Right from the start the weather tampered with the odds. Rain softened the course and slowed the slick greens, creating the kinds of conditions that make par (72) beatable. Ten golfers beat it—and the one who beat it most was a self-assured, young (24) automobile salesman from San Francisco. In the first round Amateur Ken Venturi, a protege of Veteran Byron Nelson, grabbed the Masters' lead with a flashing 66.

Everything Right. A Walker Cup golfer in '53, with few important tournament titles to his credit, Venturi had not even qualified for the Masters. He had been the choice of former Masters winners (who have one invitation to give) mostly on the strength of his upset victory over Amateur Champion Harvie Ward in last month's San Francisco city championship. Sent off, appropriately enough, with Amateur Billy Joe Patton, who led the field to the halfway mark two years ago, Venturi did everything right. His drives were true, his irons crisp and sure. Not once did he take more than two putts a hole. But he was being pushed hard by some tough pros: the defending champ, Dentist Cary Middlecoff (with a 67), Shelly Mayfield and Tommy Bolt (68) and the great Ben Hogan (69). It was about time for Amateur Venturi to crack.

Next day the weather was still bad. But for Venturi that was all right. He shot a three-under-par 69 to set a Masters' 36-hole record (135) for amateurs and tie Nelson's 14-year-old professional record for the halfway point in the tournament. In second place, Cary Middlecoff dropped farther back with a 72, for a total of 139. Hogan shot a 78 and was out of the running. Four were bunched in third place; in fourth, with 143, was Jackie Burke Jr. of Kiamesha Lake, N.Y.

Get Off Your Butt. On the third day the winds were even worse. Scores soared like kites. Venturi finished the first nine in a dreadful 40. "There he blows!" murmured a spectator, and most of the crowd agreed. Then Middlecoff went out in a brisk 35 to take the lead. Venturi murmured to himself: "Boy, you've got to get off your butt and go." Result of the new "go": he shot three successive birdies (the 13th through 18th) and came home through the back nine in 35. Middlecoff, meanwhile, ran into poor luck. His eyes were swollen from hay fever, and someone had borrowed his jacket, which contained the medicine he needed. Jittery and red-eyed, he fell apart, finished with a slow 40. That was right back where he started the day—four strokes behind Venturi. "If it's windy like that tomorrow," he said, "I don't even want to play on the s.o.b."