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Palmer's clutch play wins Masters title
Venturi's bid erased by birdies
Arnie pockets record $17,500
By Johnny Hendrix
Chronicle Sports Editor
Augusta, Ga., Monday, April 11, 1960 -- Arnold Palmer birdied the last two holes on the Augusta National golf course Sunday afternoon to win the 24th Masters Tournament by a single stroke with a score of 282.
Palmer's birdie-birdie finish gave him a two-under-par 70 for the round and broke the courageous heart that belongs to Ken Venturi, who had battled Dow Finsterwald head-to-head for 18 holes and finally won that struggle with a 283.
The victory, Palmer's second in three years over the tough and treacherous course that Bob Jones helped design 25 years ago, was worth $17,500, the biggest single prize that is expected to be awarded for a 72-hole tournament this year. It was his fifth victory this year, bringing his total prize money for the year to $44,256.
Great Finish
Off with a one-stroke lead at the beginning, he at one time found himself trailing Venturi by three, but in one of the great golf finishes of all times, he slammed the door in the face of the man who had thrown the title away in 1956 when he scored a last round 80.
The crowd, considered a record for a Sunday Masters and almost, if not equal to the estimated 35,000 in attendance on Saturday, enjoyed the fourth straight day of fine weather for gallerying the tournament.
As a result of the four-day total estimate of 120,000 people, the purse jumped to $87,050. Venturi got $10,500 for second place and Finsterwald $7,000 for third. In fourth place came Billy Casper, the U.S. Open champion, who won $5,250.
Julius Boros, who started one stroke back, finished fifth and won $4,200. Tied at 289 came Ben Hogan, who also started out one stroke back, Walter Burkemo and Gary Player. Each won $2,800.
Just as great as Palmer's finish was the struggle between Venturi and Finsterwald, who were paired in the final round. Both started three under par for 54 holes and one shot behind Palmer. Finsterwald, who pulled even with Venturi at 11, lost him at 12 and then squared it at 14, bogeyed the 19th hole out of the right sand trap for what appeared to be a one-stroke defeat.
30-Footer
But Palmer, who was aware all the way that Venturi had gone out in 33, three under par, came up with one of the great clutch performances in a major championship.
After having failed to gain a stroke on either of the par five holes on the back nine - which might have been expected to be birdies - he ran home a 30-footer on the 17th for a birdie and then stroked home a birdie shot of six feet at the 18th hole to insure the victory.
Dow Pulls Even
Finsterwald had moved within one stroke at the ninth with a birdie and then had pulled even at the 11th hole when Venturi's second shot, from a bad lie, made a great chip and a tough putt to salvage a bogey and lose no more than one.
He got back at 12 when Finsterwald bogeyed out of a trap, but here again he was in a most difficult position for his second shot, which was made from a stance far from normal, from a downhill lie and near the edge of the bunker.
Both played safe at 12 and parred. Venturi leaving his birdie putt less than six inches short of the cup, but then Finsterwald birdied the 14th with a tremendous putt and both parred the 15th.
Greatest Trap Shot
At 16, Finsterwald hit his tee shot short of the pin, cut into the right back corner. Venturi's tee shot carried through the green and into the right back sand trap. He was left with a near impossible shot. The pin was no more than 20 feet from the ball, and it was dead down hill all the way. He half exploded, half pinched it out and it stopped four inches above the hole. By his own admission, it was the greatest bunker shot he has ever played in his life.
At 17, both made the green and again, after Finsterwald had rolled it almost into the cup for a birdie, Venturi was left with the terrible problem of making a two and a half footer for his par. He made it.
At 18, he hit, by his own admission, the greatest tee shot of his life and his six iron second stopped maybe just a shade longer than six feet from the hole and to the left. Finsterwald, hitting a two iron to the green, ended in the right bunker and got it out some three feet from the hole.
Venturi's putt for the birdie stayed just above the lip of the cup. He spotted the ball and then after Finsterwald missed, Venturi knocked his in, ending a tremendous struggle between the two and setting the stage for the magnificent finish by Palmer.
Palmer, a 29-year-old native of Latrobe, Pa.,where he learned golf as a youngster on the course where his father is the professional, became only the second man in the history of the tournament to lead it all four days.
Opens with 67
Off to a 67 on the first round for a two-shot lead, Palmer led by one at the halfway point and at the three-quarter mark. The favorite in the beginning, he lost the lead during all three of the final rounds at one stage, but always recovered to finish on top.
That Venturi finished second by one and Finsterwald finished third by two, constitutes nothing less than classic tragedy. Venturi, who as an amateur led the tournament for three days in 1956 and then blew to an 80 on the final round as Jack Burke gained nine strokes to win by one, made an absolutely remarkable comeback on the last three days.
He shot the front nine in 31 on Thursday, but then bogeyed the first hole the following day. From that point on, he played the remaining 35 holes in eight under par.
During the four rounds, he played the second and third holes alone in nine strokes under par, getting seven birdies and one eagle.
Finsterwald, who played with Venturi in both the first and final rounds, drew a two-stroke penalty for a practice putt at the fifth green on the first round. He called the penalty himself only after learning on the second day of the tournament that he had violated a local rule.
Palmer, who increased his lead on Venturi by two strokes with a birdie at the first hole, fell behind at the third where he bogeyed, and Venturi birdied. He never led after that until he knocked home the final putt on the 18th green.
And that birdie on the first hole was no mean feat. He hooked his drive badly and had to play a full one iron to the green. From 12 feet away, he got the putt home and seemed to be off and winging.
By this time, Venturi was well on his way to that front nine 33, which put him six strokes under par for the first 63 holes. In a trap for the second hole, Palmer blasted out two and a half feet from the pin and missed it taking par and losing a stroke to Venturi at this point.
Then at the third hole, he hit an eight-iron short of the green, chipped it 10 feet from the hole and missed the putt. Venturi had put his second stiff here and made three and at that point took the lead away from Palmer and kept it until the 72nd hole.
Palmer lost still another stroke at the fifth when he three-putted from 30 feet. And still another at the sixth, when he made par after Venturi had picked up another birdie.
Chipper Was Hot
He was over the green at seven but chopped back to within three feet of the hole and made par and then wedged his third shot two feet from the hole at the eighth to gain back a stroke with a birdie.
Then, for the next eight holes, he played par golf. On the dangerous 11th, he two-putted from 30 feet to gain a stroke after Venturi had put it in the water. On 12, where he lost the tournament last year by taking a triple bogey six, he hit his tee shot over the green, but chipped back to within three feet and made it. Then at 13 - which might have been a birdie hole since it's a relatively short par five - he hit his second over the green into a bunker at the back, blasted out eight feet from the pin, but missed it.
Missing the green at 14, he chipped it to four feet and made it. Then at 15 - which might have been a birdie hole - he hit a one iron to the right of the green under a television tower, rolled it from there to within 15 feet, but two-putted for a five.
At 16, from 25 feet away after a three iron off the tee, his first putt hit the pin and stayed some four inches away from the hole.
At this point, he was left with this problem: Play the last two holes in par and lose by a stroke - or birdie one to tie or two for a win. He did the latter.
At the 17th hole, where he missed a putt of less than three feet for a bogey on the final round last year and where he had been over and bogeyed the day before from almost the same position, he played his approach short.
It was an eight iron shot that he felt was perfect, but instead of rolling toward the cup after hitting the putting surface it stopped some 30 feet short. But he holed it.
At 18, he started out to play for no more than a tie, but after a good drive, he hit a six iron hole high and to the left of the pin - almost the same spot from which Venturi had putted for a birdie earlier and missed - and he made that.
Not only was he locked in a mortal struggle with Finsterwald, but himself as well. This tournament above all others, he wants to win. Then there is the spectres of what happened in least, was that from the 11th hole on, he could never catch his breath. It was just that much of a personal duel and nobody ever gave an inch.
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