Sport: Combat at Hazeltine

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Jacklin's victory, following hard on his triumph at the British Open last summer, marks him at 25 as one of the most promising young pros on the tour. Though he dropped out of school at 15 to play golf, he did not join the U.S. pro circuit until 1968. Last year he earned only $33,036, but now, with his $30,000 Open winnings, a home and a job as pro at the resort of Sea Island, Ga., and up to $1,000,000 for endorsing products, he says he is ready to concentrate on "becoming the greatest golfer in the world." And none of Jones' monsters are going to get in his way. "You have to accept things as they are," Jacklin said after last week's victory. "The golf course isn't going to be changed for me, so I adapt to it."

To all of which, Robert Trent Jones gives a ringing bravo. "If it's short, flat, dull courses that the pro golfers prefer, they can order them out of the Sears, Roebuck catalog," he says. Indeed, his whole object is to create a course of "hard pars and easy bogeys, a course that tests a player's skill by demanding well-thought-out and beautifully executed shots." Convinced that the gallery does not want to see "boring putting contests but great golf shots," he would even like to eliminate "cheap birdies" by extending the minimum length of par-five holes from 470 to 500 yds. "But, oh, would the pros scream," he says. "They are so pampered that if they ran the tour, they'd be shooting 250 for 72 holes. That would be like playing major league baseball on a softball diamond."