A New Reign In Spain

Balbuena, for example, did not enter his first Portuguese Open until April 1976, when he was already 26 years of age. He won on that first attempt, too. This year at the same event Manuel Ramos, a 23-year-old mustachioed former caddie, now assistant professional at the exclusive El Prat club in Barcelona, repeated Balbuena's feat with a set of secondhand, 12-year-old British clubs in a shabby bag, all of which cost him $42. A month later this tall, undernourished-looking youth pulled out his rusty, trusty seven-iron at the French Open, made a hole-in-one at the 131-yard ninth hole on the Maritime course at Le Touquet and won a $22,000 Mercedes-Benz.

Not bad for someone who two years earlier was caddying doubles for $8 a round. Ol�.