The New Life Of Bob Goalby

For three weeks afterward, at the Tournament of Champions in Las Vegas, at the Byron Nelson Classic in Dallas, at the Houston International at Champions, the players spoke of little else. Some random samples:

Frank Beard: "The guy you have to feel sorriest for is Goalby. A man gets few chances in his career to win a big one. But to win one and have it tainted like this is terrible. It wasn't as if Roberto didn't know the rules."

Jimmy Demaret: "Twenty-five million people saw Roberto birdie the 17th hole. I think it would hold up in court."

Arnold Palmer: "Every week on the tour somebody makes a scorecard mistake. Somebody gets penalized or disqualified, but you don't hear about it. Tommy probably put down a 4 because it was such a short birdie putt and because he was concentrating on his own game. No matter what you say, it always comes back to Roberto."

Bob Rosburg: "What does the scoring table have to do with your ability to hit a two-iron out of the woods? Every rule in golf has been bent double by committees all over the tour. All of a sudden they can't bend one."

Dave Marr: "You can make a small case against Tommy for not doing everything he could to help a man trying to win a major championship. But you got to put some blame on the confusion around the scoring table."

Jack Burke: "What makes it seem pretty absurd is that not too many years ago they had to chase guys down at their hotels, at airports, in the lockers and everywhere else to get 'em to correct and sign their cards."

Tommy Aaron: "Naturally, I feel bad that it happened, for Roberto and for Bob, too, but it isn't like I was the first player ever to do it. All of us are constantly correcting our cards after a round. I don't know why I put down a 4 instead of a 3. Keeping score has always been incidental, the last thing you ever thought about. You just assume that a man knows what he shoots and changes a hole if it's wrong."

And so it goes, on and on, but ultimately back to the fact that Roberto lost the Masters on a rule that is as clear as the one that says you can't step on an opponent's ball—and Bob Goalby is a deserving champion.

Actually, what bothers Goalby today more than the shadow hanging over his victory in Georgia is the fact that, suddenly, he is considered a good golfer only because he has captured a big one.