Word: dew
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Churchill Downs in the pre-Derby dawn is a heady place. Drifting wood smoke, dampened by morning dew, cuts the sharp, ammoniac smell of the stables. From the tarns, where skittish thoroughbreds are breakfasting, comes the metallic clank of feed tubs, or an occasional hoof thump. Sleepy-eyed grooms and exercise boys, clutching their mugs of coffee, shuffle through the shadows...
...crowds had come to see the Byron Nelsons, the Sam Sneads, the Ben Hogans. Of the other 130 hopefuls entered in the $10,000 St. Petersburg Open Tournament, only 20 had much chance to finish in the money. The rest had a cheerful name for themselves: the dew sweepers...
Most of the dew sweepers at St. Petersburg, as at the other tournaments in the Florida winter "grapefruit" circuit, were country-club pros-big frogs in the little puddles and big bunkers back home. They didn't look as good against pro golf's Big 20 as they did against the local businessmen. Said Gene Sarazen, watching one of them practice earnestly for the next day's dawn patrol: "He'll be back in Swizzlestick, Arkansas, next month, giving lessons...
...rarer kind of dew sweeper was the amateur: at Florida prices, few could afford amateur standing. The dawn patrol slept in auto camps and trailers. They lived on hamburgers and Cokes. In the last few months, six top amateurs have turned pro. Said one of them, Fred Haas Jr.: "It cost me $6,000 to expense myself through 25 tourneys last year. That's costly." Almost the only amateurs left were well-to-do businessmen who can break par, but cannot break into the Big 20. They get a kick out of being in the same tournament with golf...
Last week the dew sweepers had the week off while the Big 20 played in an invitation tourney at Miami. Some of them, sadder & wiser, have gone home. Others, looking at thinning wallets decided to stay and try out just one more tournament, at Jacksonville this week. Among them: onetime Tennis Champ Ellsworth Vines, who gave up tennis competition in 1940, took up golf, which he said was more challenging and less monotonous. His low-70 golf puts him on the outer fringes of the Big 20. A year ago he set aside $15,000 to make himself...