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U. S. Open Stars Tee Off Thursday Hogan,Sneed Share Tourney Spotlight Bantam Ben Seeking Fifth Title; 12 Former Winners In Field of 162 Entrants By OSCAR FRALEY United Press Sports Writer SPRINGFIELD, N. J., June 12 CUP. Its still Bantam Ben Hogan and Slammin Sammy Snead against the field when the three-day chase for the U. S. Open golf j championship gets under way at Baltusrol Golf Club next Thursday. Hogan will be shooting for a record fifth triumph, for already he. has matched the four-time victories of Bobby Jones and old-timer Willie Anderson. Snead will be gunning for his first, after years of heartbreak, in which four disappointing times he has been a woebegone second. But these two - ancient cripples, who ran one-two last year, still are the men to beat despite the fact that each is complaining of the miseries as the 162-man field prepares to go into action in quest of Americas greatest golfing prize. -, Hogan has been suffering from a recurrent virus condition. Occasionally he runs a temperature and complaints of "tiredness." Snead has a cold in his back which causes shoulder blade pain when he swings. But the field is wary of their "cripples." The fairway fraternity well remembers how Olin Dutra won the big one in 1934 when he had a bad stomach. How, too, blond Craig Wood, who had missed so often he was called "Number Two" Wood, had such a bad back in 1941 that he had to sleep on a. board arid won it. Won Second Crown in 1950 And now Hogan himself came back from a near fatal automobile accident and, despite legs which ached intolerably, carried off the second of his four Open crowns at Merion in 1950. Since then "the little man" has won it twice more, at Oakland Hills, Birmingham, Mich., in 1951, and at Oakmont last year. That was when he started the final round one stroke ahead of Snead and wound up winning by six shots over the fading Slammer. But Samuel Jackson still has high hopes, even at 42. For Baltusrol is a drivers course and that department is Slammin Sams greatest. Yet most observers believe that the psychological barrier is too great. His reaction sustains that belief. "If I had won that first one," Sam says, "I might have won four or five." "That first one" was on his first attempt, back in 1937. .Sam was in with an apparent victory when Ralph Guldahl came out of nowhere to set a new record and push Snead back into second place. Two years later, at Spring Hill, Snead came to the last hole needing an easy par five to win and a bogey six to tie. Thats when he took his classic eight. : - In 1947 he- tied Lew Worsham and lost the play-off when he missed a 30 -inch putt on the final hole". In J949 he finished one shot back of Cary Middlecoff, with the finest closing round in the field, and then failed again wlien he had a big chance last year. . A total of 12 former champions are in the lists. In addition to Hogan, Middlecoff, Wood and Worsham, they are Billy Burke, Julius Boros, Chick Evans, Lawson Little, Lloyd Mangrum, Tony Mariero, Gene Sarazen arid host pro Johnny Farrell. Other hopefuls include amateur king Gene Littler, now; a professional, and P. G. A. champion Waily Burkemo.
