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Ben Hogan's 280 wins 15th Masters classic
Skee Riegel in 2nd spot as play ends
By Randy Russell
Chronicle sports editor
Augusta, Ga., Monday, April 9, 1951 -- Valiant Ben Hogan, with the big majority of a crowd of 12,000 golf addicts pulling for him, won the 15th annual Masters tournament yesterday by shooting a brilliant 68 over the par 72 Augusta National Golf club course for a 72-hoe total of 280.
Skee Riegel, the former National Amateur champion who turned pro little over a year ago, was second at 282. Lloyd Mangrum and Lew Worstram Sr. deadlocked for third six strokes behind Hogan.
For the game bantam from Fort Worth, Texas, the Masters championship completed a string that includes every major title golf has to offer a professional. Only Hogan, Byron Nelson and Gene Sarazen have won the Masters, the PGA championship and the National Open, the three big prizes for America pros. Hogan began the day with a stroke to make up on Riegel and Sam Snead.
Snead blows stack
Snead blew his stack on the back nine, after going one over par on the front side. The White Sulphur Springs, W. Va., slammer hit his second shot into the water on the newly-revised No. 11 hole and took an eight, just double of par.
He'd shown signs of temper as early as the third hole when he caught a spectator trying to snap his picture as he was chipping from the edge of the green.
``Boy,'' Snead muttered darkly as he prepared to make the shot. ``I thought this was one place where you could get away from that.''
He missed the shot for a bogey and then headed for the screaming meemies on the back nine. His big fat 80 put him back among the also-rans at 291.
Riegel, with far less experience than Snead in holding a lead under pressure, held up well. He carded a 71, albeit a somewhat erratic one, with four bogeys, five birdies and nine holes played in even par.
Hogan was three strokes under par when he saw Riegel's 282 posted on the big scoreboard as he turned the ninth hole. He knew then that, barring a tremendous surprise from another quarter, he had only to play par golf the rest of the way to win the tournament.
Cautious player
He was consequently, a cautious and conservative player on the back none, letting the birdies go for sure par whenever there was a choice in the matter.
It was, he said later, not the kind of golf he enjoys playing.
``There was no other way to do it, though,'' he explained. ``Why take chances and throw away the tournament?''
Ben had put himself in the enviable position of being able to play safe with three birdies on the front none. On No. 2, his second shot hooked onto the edge of the green and after narrowly missing his eagle putt, he was down in two for a birdie four. He hit a brilliant iron shot that squatted down three feet from the pin for another birdie on No. 3. Then, on No. 8, the second par five hole on the front nine, he scrambled to a birdie in a way that had his adherents whooping with joy.
His second shot on the difficult 520-yard uphill fairway was to the mound that guards the pin from that sector. He pitched over the mound to a spot just off the green and then canned a 15-foot chip for his four.
If the Hogan following was enthusiastic at this point, it became almost delirious when Ben knocked his iron shot to within ten feet of the pin on No. 9. He missed his birdie putt here and on No. 10, where he was even closer.
By this time, Hogan was deliberately playing short in order to make sure of avoiding disaster. He putted short from eight feet on No. 11 and, after looking at it longingly on No. 13, put it back and substituted an iron for a safe shot short of the little creek fronting the green. It paid off for his fourth birdie of the day.
Takes no chances
He took no chances the rest of the way in.
Was this the tournament that Hogan wanted most to win?
Not exactly, the new champion said after he was safely home in the clubhouse.
``You've got to go into every tournament you play wanting to win it,'' he said. ``You can't pick out any particular one above another.
``Naturally, it's to win this one. It completes the string.''
``I've had my share of luck,'' said the little man who was almost killed in an automobile accident less than three years ago but came back to play championship golf again. ``If I never win again, I won't complain.''
While Snead's blow-up attracted the most attention, he was not alone. The gaudiest blow-up of them all belonged to Bill (Dynamite) Goodloe of Valdosta, the leading amateur in the tournament after three days but an 88 shooter on the final round.
Goodloe managed to wind up at 305 by going 5-5-6-7 on the first four holes of the back nine, where the score card reads 4-4-3-5.
Charlie Coe of Oklahoma City, Okla., the low amateur here a year ago, was the top simon-pure after Goodloe's disaster with a 293.
Only five players completed the tournament at par figures or better, the same number that has been under par for the last three years.
Despite a forecast of possible rain, sunny skies smiled on yesterday's round. The crowd has seldom, if ever, been larger.
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