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SPORTS CLOSE-UPS By ha Seebacher NEW YORK, May 13. — A month from now will find the golf world in concentrated numbers at the Winged Foot Club where the National Open will be played. In the past, and probably almost as much today, this was the big betting event of golf. If you liked any particular member of the field, the late Jack Doyle was quite willing not only to quote you the line, but to take care of the dough you wished to wager. We never bothered betting with Jack on golf, but he was just as willing to accommodate you on football or anything else. It occurs to us that if Jack were around today making his line, a lot of money would find itself arriving for sentiments sake on the back of Bantam Ben Hogan. But we wonder if sentiment alone would impel some to back Hogan. He has been, as we all know, one of the great golfers of all time and when he was up there, it was like betting against the Yankees to bet against Ben. He won the big ones. AAA There are those who figure hes had it. Personally, we never thought wed be writing again that he figured in a big one, but here he is a month away from the Open, having just won the National Colonial Open with figures that indicate he couldnt have been a lot better in his palmiest days. There are those who must have the sentiment of a salesman of Canadian mining stock who are backing Ben. They have no nostalgic remembrance of the little guy, they are not betting a buck on sentiment. They have coldly reasoned that golf is a game in which your last round is a pretty good indication of how well you play. Hogans last significant rounds for the record were 69-67-77-72-69. Except for the 77, youd say that Hogan has turned back the clock ten years. On this and this alone, there will be some money, riding on Hogan. There are those who know he may lack a lot of things which the years may have taken from him but not that driving instinct to win, that ability to compress concentration in his bantam frame to the point it pours from his pores. Hes a great** competitor and it begins to look as though he has found his game again. If he has, some of theyoung-sters who had been counting on no further trouble from him will be in for a terrifying experience. Hes a machine that moves across a course and he crushes everything as he moves. AAA When a good team is best is when it is beating back the strongest teams it has to meet. Occasionally we witness the winning of a pennant by a club that has great success against the weak sisters and only indifferent records versus the better clubs. The stamp of greatness is when a team wins by beating the top clubs of its league. Sunday, the Braves showed us they have it once again this year by beating Cincinnati in both ends of a twin bill. The Reds right now are one of the clubs of the league with which the ultimate winner must reckon. Milwaukee served notice it intends to try that reckoning. , . Another club to impress us greatlyis Los Angeles because it has done so well in its Continued on Page Forty-Nine I SPORTS CLOSE-UPS By IRA SEEBACHER Continued from Page Two games so far with San Francisco. Conceding that both the Giants and Dodgers have a fair pennant chance this year, the Dodgers have shown, so tar, that they can take the Giants when need be. That, too, is a stamp of what we mean by true strength. The Giants and Dodgers have met seven times this year and the Dodgers have won five times. This means to us that as bright as some people may feel are the chances of the Giants, they can be dismissed. Seven games is enough, wed say, to prove that whatever the Giants may have this year, the Dodgers have more of it.
