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SEPTEMBER 1955 57 injury). Sam Snead, Gene Littler, and Ed Furgol were also mentioned as possible winners. The Olympic Club's lake-side course was changed for the tournament to make it more difficult for the experts. By the fourth round the difficult course had conquered most of the players. Hogan finished his fourth round with a score of 70, his lowest round in the tournament. Fleck was still out on the fairway when Gene Sarazen and Joe Dey of the U.S. Golf Association were congratulating Hogan on a record fifth National Open triumph. Going into the final round, Fleck had taken a five because of a poor approach on the fourteenth hole and had been overlooked by the gallery. On the fifteenth, he shot an iron to within four feet of the pin and took one birdie. All he could hope for on the 603-yard sixteenth hole was par five, and he got it. The seventeenth had a curving fairway and a hidden green. Playing conservatively, he again took par. For the eighteenth he needed a birdie for a three-under-par score of 67 that would tie Hogan's total. Fleck's drive went into the rough. With his wedge he lifted the ball high into the sharply sloping green to within seven feet of the pin. He stroked the critical shot into the cup for a birdie and a tie. On Sunday, June 19, the play-off was held. Hogan dropped a stroke on the par-four fifth hole. After hooking his second shot into the bunker on the sixth, Fleck recovered to within twenty-five feet of the pin, then sank an amazing shot for par. On the short eighth, both players were on the green in one. Hogan then sank a fifty-foot putt and Fleck coolly sank his eight footer. On the ninth hole Fleck sank a twenty-five foot putt for a birdie three and was two strokes up on Hogan. Another long putt of eighteen feet on the tenth gave Fleck his third straight birdie. He was leading the veteran by three strokes. Hogan took a stroke from Fleck on the eleventh hole only to give it back on the twelfth. He then cut Fleck down on the fourteenth and seventeenth holes to a lead of a single stroke. On the final hole Hogan drove into the foot-high rough which all but obscured the ball. He used one stroke to uncover it. A second stroke moved it three feet, and a third brought it to the fairway. Hogan stroked a fine twenty-five foot putt, but took six for the hole. Fleck using a spoon to drive off the eighteenth tee, was easily on in two, and babied his two putts to the cup for a par four, and one under par total, scoring a 69 to Hogan's 72. Although Hogan had played consistent golf throughout the tournament with only a few strokes over par, Fleck had scored under par twice. Al Laney of the New York Herald Tribune (June 20, 1955) called his putting "astounding," and Time magazine (June 27, 1955) noted that Fleck had a "fluid swing." Fleck's putting average was 27 1/2 per round, as against a par of 36. His award for first place was $6,000, and requests for personal appearances, exhibition dates and endorsements immediately began to add to this sum (about $35,000 is the usual sum an Open Champion can make). President Eisenhower, who was in San Francisco at the time, congratulated Fleck. The golfer's home town gave him a new car and a parade. His wife, the former Lynn Burnsdale of Chicago, also plays golf. They have a four-year-old son, Craig Carroll. Fleck is six feet one inch tall and weighs 164 pounds. He has wavy dark brown hair and green eyes. "He does not smoke or drink spirits, so he won't endorse cigarettes or whiskey; he does drink an occasional glass of beer" (New Yorker, July 9, 1955). He hopes to continue his duties at the local courses in Davenport. In a transcription to Lawrence Robinson for a series of articles in the New York World-Telegram and Sun (June 27-July 2, 1955), Fleck stated, "I want to be a playing champion and prove that I'm not flash in the pan." In the P.G.A. tournament at Northville, Michigan on July 23 he was defeated in the third round by Tommy Bolt. References New Yorker 31:15+ Jl 9 '55 Sports Illus 26:19+ Je 27 '55 por GOLDEN, JOHN June 27, 1874-June 17, 1955 Producer; playwright; composer; actor; considered dean of Broadway producers and patriarch of New York show business; produced over 150 plays and musicals, such as Lightnin', The First Year, Seventh Heaven, Three Wise Fools, Claudia, Susan and God, and The Male Animal; wrote Hip Hip Hooray and other plays; composed songs "Poor Butterfly" and "Goodbye Girls, I'm Through"; helped launch program for giving free theatre tickets to soldiers; supported New York City Center; was a founder of ASCAP and a shepherd of The Lambs. See Current Biography (March) 1944. Obituary N Y Times p17 Je 18 '55 HAMPDEN, WALTER (DOUGHERTY) June 30, 1879-June 11, 1955 Actor of Shakespearean and romantic roles; played in Cyrano de Bergerac over 1000 times; portrayed Hamlet, Cardinal Richelieu, Macbeth, Shylock, Othello, Petruchio, Henry V, Richard III, and the Admirable Crichton; began movie career in 1939 with The Hunchback of Notre Dame; played the "aging actor" in All About Eve (1950); among his last films were The Silver Chalice and Sabrina (1954); was host on the Mutual network's radio series Great Scenes from Great Plays (1948) and also played Cyrano; made television debut in 1949 as Macbeth and his last Broadway appearance as Deputy-Governor Danforth in Arthur Miller's The Crucible; resigned his presidency of The Players on October 8, 1954. See Current Biography (May) 1953. Obituary N Y Times p86 Je 12 '55
