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> BOB NICHOLS, 26. is lucky to be alive, let alone playing championship golf: in 1952 he was nearly killed in an auto crash when the car in which he and several other teen-agers were riding went off the road at 107 m.p.h. Unconscious for 13 days, Nichols was hospitalized for 96 with a broken pelvis, a back injury, a concussion and assorted internal injuries. He recovered completely, won an athletic scholarship to Texas A. & M., turned pro in 1959. Husky (6 ft. 2 in.. 195 Ibs.) and handsome, Nichols can slam a drive as far as Nicklaus, though not with the same arrow accuracy: he once won a driving contest with measured drives of 347, 352 and 367 yds. So far this year, Nichols has earned $26.475, won two tournaments—including a play-off victory over Nicklaus in the Houston Classic. In the Open, he tied Rodgers for third.
There is nothing stereotyped about the new pros except the daring golf they play and the supreme confidence they display in their talents. "I'm playing beautifully," Gary Player announced to reporters before the start of the 1961 Masters. "I think I may win this tournament." Four days later, he did. On the first tee at the 1958 N.C.A.A. championships in Williamstown, Mass., chunky Phil Rodgers. then a University of Houston student, turned around and announced to the gallery: "I've got a hundred bucks says I'll win this thing." No one felt like betting, and Rodgers went on to win 8 and 7. To these youngsters, Arnold Palmer is no bogey man, but just another pro trying to take money out of their pockets. Says Jack Nicklaus: "Arnie's not that much better than anyone else. Everybody thinks Palmer will win, and he has come from behind often enough so that pretty soon the player facing him thinks so too. Well, maybe it's a certain cockiness in me, but I can't really admit to myself that Palmer or any other player is a better golfer than I am."