Texas Grass Fire

Professional golf is no game for the young. In the last decade, few men have developed the gunner's skills, the confidence and iron nerve of the big-money player before 30, and even then new challengers have been rare; a virtually unchanging set of veterans has been dividing big U.S. purses since World War II. But last week many a winter tournament spectator and most of the pros themselves were betting that a 27-year-old Texan named Jack Burke would crash the charmed circle for good in 1950.

Since New Year's Day, smiling, curly-haired John Joseph Burke Jr. has been burning along like a Texas grass fire; he tied Sam Snead and two others for first in the Bing Crosby Invitation, took a third in the Los Angeles Open, won the Rio Grande Valley Open and was up in the money at Long Beach, Phoenix and Tucson. But to pros like Kansas' Dick Metz (who thinks Burke will win the National Open) all this was less impressive than the youngster's background.

Fort Worth-born Jack Burke had lived --and played--golf ever since he was seven. His father, Jack Sr., the pro at Houston's fancy River Oaks Country Club, saw to it that he was a sound golfer in a year or two. He qualified for the Texas Junior Tournament at 13, and for the U.S. Open when he was 16.

He grew into a strong, solid man--a tremendous hitter whose incessant practicing gave him a sharpshooter's accuracy in iron play. He devoted himself to golf with a single-minded passion. At 18 he got a job as a pro with the Galveston Country Club.

World War II took him out of circulation for four years, most of them spent as a Marine Corps judo instructor. But after his discharge he hurried back to golf, ending up last year as head pro at the Metropolis Country Club at White Plains, N.Y.

By last week his game had a gleaming, steely and tempered polish; he took the lead in the first round of Florida's $10,000 St. Petersburg Open, went on to win with a dazzling twelve-under-par 272 over such high-powered competitors as Jimmy Demaret and Sam Snead.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.