re - a -
rs

“The King is dead! Long live the King! Whit.

~~ “king? An army of crown princes, ‘maybe. But | No -

king. Not even a court jester. -

- week in.

For most Canadians this
is the start of
the Stanley Cup playoffs, a
six-week endurance contest
of-hunkering down infront
of the old TV set every
second evening; of turning
eye strain into the nations!
springtime malady.

But for most sports
followers elsewhere on the
continent, and wherever the
game of golf is played, this is
the week of the Masters, the

The first 10 tournaments

of the season were won by 10 -

different players. This is not
the stuff of which dramatic
buildups are made. This isn’t
the way to capture the public
imagination.

And it’s showing. For the
iirst time in years,
raungs are down. As much
as 25 per for some
events. Who: .2¢ ieast bit
interested in names like Lon
Hinkle, Fuzzy Zoeller, Bob

py fim meres

as

Jimmy: Demaret,

| _time seems. ripe for the start delineated the problem most

of a new era; for one or two
guys to rise out of the pack —

delightfully:

and dominate the game and --. “Young American golfers

the imaginations of its.
followers the-way that first,
Palmer, and then Nicklaus,
did for the last 20 years. _

“But no one is making the a middle class home via a

move. The game. has never.
had as many tent
_ players as there are on the |
"tour today: But it has no new
stars.

° Down through the years,
others have come to the top
_.to-dominate the game

the . public imagination.
Byron Nelson, Sam Snead,
Ben
Hogan,: Arnold Palmer,
Gary | Player and Jack
Ni icklaus.

and,—*
"more importantly, ‘to catch

And starsi it must have, for.
golf has no home team lure
to turn on the fans. It must
sell personalities. It must sell
a new king in a castle. And it
doesn’t have one. Justa host...
of pretenders. Dedicated,
competent and

eoeee

_ Put any one ofan aspiring.
dozen in..a police lineup,

mostly y give the impression of
being products of a mass
production line like some”
superior Action Man: The
standard model. comes from

‘college golf. scholarship. -
STANDARD MODEL |

“He's
wardrobe of -double-. knit.
slacks, 5 shirts and
multi-colored shoes, plus. 14
interchangeable clubs. He
has a vocabulary of several
hundred words and has been
. progammed to string them
together into a curious litany
of meaningless jargon in
response-to a stock series s of
asinine questions.

“Thus, if you inquire: “Do

someone recently remarked,

and even the tour com-

This. iis the: sgame’s. “new. .

~ ‘problem, the one of identity) _
- in the eyes of i its followers, as ~
it. heads< into « the. 1979"

Masters, starting tomorrow...
At least this tournament has
one thing going for it that _

-none of the previous 1979° |

tour stops can claim. -

>

Like other established
occasions — Wimbledon, the. -

World . Series, the. Super
= Bowl. and. the FA Cop. final

- The way, things have been
shaping up in golf this year, a
good thing. When they put
the traditional green coat on

' the winner Sunday af-

ternoon, take a long, hard

‘you think- a low score~is —look .and_make @-point--of- -

possible on this course? ’, he

Nicklaus is the latest and, missioner, Deane Beman, will issue a low humming

no doubt, the greatest. But -
now 39 and pushing on to 40,

Probably couldn't identify
him. In what other sport can

noise for a moment while the
tumblers fall into place, and

he’s on the downswing of his 2 Player earn more than then reply: ‘If you can drive
playing career and this year $200,000 a season and not be the ball in the fairways, hit

is in the deepest slump he .
has ever know.

At this time a year ago,

recognized by the fans.

A few months ago a golf
writer in an English. paper

‘all the greens and ‘make a
bunch of putts, then you
have a chance of a good
score’.”

associating the face with the
name.

You may see neither again
for months to come. Yet,
hopefully, for the sake of the
sport, you may be seeing the
coronation of a.new king.

first prestige tournament of
the season; the first im-
POrtant Ciash GI the year for

‘the game’s leadine players.

But this year, tor we first
time since the tournament
started tn 1934, there is no

‘Byman, Larry Nelson and
Mark McCumber? In-
terested, indeed. Who can
even remember them, one
-hour after the tournament is
over? Yet, they are all tour
‘Winners this year.

Nitkiaus had” won two
tournaments and had been
BEt(« Toebtla} alte in WO more.
He came to Augusta, Ga..
his legions of fans in tow,
seeking a sixth Masters title.

He didn’t win it. Player

It’s long overdue. .

Star turn. No rival kings will

meet head-on in the first -

segment of golf's modern
day grand slam: the Masters,
the U.S. Open, the. British
‘Open and the U.S. PGA
championship.

NO MORE KINGS

The game just doesn’t
have any kings these days.
What it does have is an
identity crisis.

little known and quite.

forgettable players has beén

all the tournaments
in the first three months of
the year. .

YDPO WARP OW

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The ticket sellers in
professional sport — all pro
sport — are the superstars,
the ones who stand out
above the crowd; the ones
with. the ability and the
charisma to attract large and
loyal followings.

THE BIG NAME

Right from the beginning
golf has had its legendary
names, its big drawing cards.

take its first, shakey practice
swings 50 years ago, a
flamboyant artist named
Walter Hagen gave it
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was the winner. But just the
presence of two
acknowledged superstars, at
the top of their ‘games,
ensured the usual top
visibility for a most
prestigious tournament.

But this year? Jack hasn't
been in the top 10 in any
tournament he has entered.
In his last 12 rounds, he has
only once broken par. His
72-hole scores in his last
three tournaments were
294 and 300.

A NEW ERA

With Player going along at
about the same rate, the

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(HANCOUVER BC