AMERICAN RANKS GOLFERS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 41, 18 February 1939, Page 4

AMERICAN RANKS GOLFERS

■ GULDAHL AHEAD OF SNEAD SARAZEN NOT MENTIONED Although a writer in Golf, ot America, is on the spot, there are many who will be surprised that he ranks Ralph Guldahl before Snead, and that he does not include Gene Sarazen, E. Dudley, Densmore Shute, Horton Smith, and Jimmy Thomson, long, driver and winner of the Melbourne Centenary Thousand, in the first ten. He places Guldahl first, Snead second, Paul Runyan third, Henry Picard fourth, and then in order, H. Cooper, J. Hines, Byron Nelson, J. Revolta, Victor Ghezzi, and T. Penna. Guldahl has won the National Open twice and the Western Open thrice in succession, an achievement which makes him an outstanding figure in the game. Running him very close is Snead, an amazing young man who, in his second year as a campaigner, has won £4OOO in prize money alone in the space of 12 months. In this short space of time he has risen from obscurity to be the most-talkcd-of golfer in the United States. A teetotaller and a non-smoker, Snead has clear-cut ideas on the financial aspects of a professional golfer’s career. In the space of 10 years he hopes to have saved enough money to meet any possible contingencies. “I work hard for my money (he says), and I know I am as lucky as a cat with 90 lives. I don’t know haw long the luck will hold out, but neither hades nor high water is going to keep me from banking as much as I can, while I can.” By winning the U.S. match-play championship, Paul Runyan is placed third in the list. Though out-driven by the length of a street, the little man gave such an astonishing exhibition of pitching and putting that he completed the first 18 holes in 67, and eventually beat Snead by the overwhelming margin of eight and seven. Next in the list is Henry Picard, who won the Masters’ tournament, one of the major events in American golf.