Word: fleck
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...airport. Above a nearby hangar streamed a banner proclaiming: "Congratulations, we're proud of you, Jack." Below the banner hung a 20-ft. cardboard putter. Out stepped a lanky, lean, tired man in blue slacks and white sweater. A thousand welcomers cheered. Unashamedly, the weary man wept. Jack Fleck, 32, a week after leaving Davenport as one of the nation's most obscure golf pros, was home as the city's No. 1 citizen -rocketed from nowhere to glory as the darkest horse ever to win the U.S. Open golf championship (TIME, June 27). Mopping his tears...
...Snead, with two good rounds under his belt, exploded all over the course. ("Well, I've had my opportunity, boy," he muttered to his caddy.) Now, going to the 14- green on the fourth round was the one man who still had a chance of catching Hogan: Jack Fleck, 32, a loose-jointed sharpshooter out of Davenport, Iowa, who never took a lesson in his life...
...stringy (6 ft. 1½ in., 164 Ibs.) ex-caddy who just kept playing until he was good enough to become a pro at two municipal courses in his home town, Fleck had a fluid swing that walloped the ball with remarkable accuracy. When a marshal told him that Hogan was home in 287, he said, "Now I know I have a chance." He made the most of it. On the 461-yd., uphill 17th, Fleck's second shot was a bold and beautiful wood that landed 40 ft. from the pin. He just missed his putt and settled...
Impossible Rough. Next day, in the playoff, Ben Hogan stayed up with his young competitor until he dropped a stroke on the fifth hole. After that Hogan never caught up. On the 139-yd. eighth he sank a soft, putt for a two; Fleck and his hot putter matched the birdie. On the eleventh Hogan picked up a stroke with a par four; Fleck promptly took it back on the twelfth. Going to the 18th, the bone-weary veteran was one stroke down. There was still a chance, but he hooked his drive off the high tee into thick, impossible...
Three days before, Jack Fleck barely had the cash to pay his caddy. Suddenly, the golf world was his. Tears filled his eyes as he watched Gentleman Ben Hogan grin for the cameras and fan the red-hot Fleck putter, the Hogan-designed club that had carried him home...