Golf: The Teacher

It is not quite accurate to say that Ross Sobel has been playing pro golf for 49 years without ever winning a tournament. In 1922, he beat Willie MacFarlane for a new suit of clothes in the John David Invitational—a pitch-and-putt tournament that was played in midtown Manhattan on the cutting floor of a men's clothing store. "It wasn't as easy as it sounds," says Sobel. "The greens were trapped with buckets of sand and water, and I had to shoot a 40-ft. hole-in-one to win."

A slender five-footer who parts his hair...

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