A Very Green Tradition
For several seasons now the first twosome to tee off in the Masters championship has been Fred McLeod and Jock Hutchison, the latter a 73-year-old transplanted Scot who won the British Open in 1921, the former a slightly older émigré from Scotland who carried off our National Open exactly 50 years ago. The active presence of these two evergreen wonders, the oldest of the champions who annually receive their invitations to play in the Masters, illustrates a salient feature of the tournament's charm and importance. For, apart from the pervasive flavor of sports-at-their-best which emanates from the host, Bob Jones, apart from the testing and exceedingly beautiful course and the superior administration all down the line, the Masters possesses that other absolute requisite for a classic golf event: it has a great field. Everyone is there—the current hot-shots of the pro circuit, the young stars like Billy Casper and Ken Venturi (who could well do in this year's Masters what he just failed to do two years ago); the top-rung amateurs, like Harvie Ward and the irrepressible William J. Patton; and, above all, the magnificent champions of earlier decades, many of them, by the way, extremely capable of winning once again. In this age of quick turnover in heroes, golf is very fortunate compared to other sports. Because of the nature of the game its champions last for years, and one's interest in them naturally grows and grows. There are few finer pleasures for the man who likes the fabric of a living tradition than to walk the course at Augusta and watch the great players of five decades still hitting their great shots, almost as if time had stood still.
Forming their familiar patterns, the huge galleries at the Masters spill over what is undoubtedly the finest spectator's course in golf
MOUNTAIN MOZART: Sam Snead, thrice a winner
FIFTH TEXAN to win at Augusta: Jack Burke, 1956
RANCHER: Byron Nelson, victor in '37, '42
TRIPLE WINNER ('40, '47, '50): birthdayless Demaret
Like no other competition in golf, the Masters is both a tournament and a gathering for the players, their families, their friends, their fans. In the air is the flavor of Jones, the South in spring, the young men new to the big time, and the veterans—these especially, the men who have made it the big time. Here in the Masters scene, in action and at ease, are some of the game's great personalities who have fittingly carried the day at Augusta.
DOUBLE WINNER ('51, '53): dauntless Ben Hogan
MASTERS HOST: Bob Jones surveying the action with T. R. Garlington
FOURSOME of wives: Mmes. Cudd, Venturi, Coe, Cherry
SEDENTARY SQUIRE: Sarazen, champion in '35
Beauty and peril, typical of the Augusta National, go hand in hand on the 190-yard 16th
ELEVEN PHOTOS
JOHN G. ZIMMERMAN AND FARRELL GREHAN