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SATURDAY. MAY 28 ONTARIO TODAY PAGE NINE Don't Pity the Golf Pro Tournament-winning golfers are now sought-after celebrities BY TRENT FRAYNE Toronto's Al Balding watches wife pack for tournament travel FEW Sundays ago Sam Snead was earning $2,800 for winning a golf tournament in Greensboro, N.C. -- on the same Sunday afternoon that he was collecting $1,000 for losing a golf match on television. A $3,800 Sunday is a good collection for a whole cathedral, much less an eldering gentleman. The same day Arnold Palmer, a golf professional, rode down the main street of his home town, Latrobe, Pa., in an open convertible to iesounding cheers from the packed sidewalks as his fellow-citizens acclaimed him. Once, the pro golfer used the servants' entrance and 'was treated by club members in a friendly, but pat- -ronizing way, like a chaffeur or a gardener with a particularly green thumb. It was a well-paid pro who averaged better than $50 a week. "Nowadays, the professional golfer has living standards 'and independence matched by few mortals. He is a the 1959 Canadian Open will be shown. The method of distribution is fool-proof enough that if the golfers' wives fail to get the message it will not be the fault of the promoters. First, the committee ascertained the names of golfers whose wives accom- pany them on the tournament circuit. Then they looked up the tournament schedule. Then, on the eve of a given tournament, they mailed glowing brochures to the ladies in care of the golf club at which the tournament was being played. And they'll continue to do this until the week before the Canadian Open. The pro golfer became' a celebrity, much sought-after, at about the same time as post - war prosperity hit this continent. time. But with the advent of jobs-for-all (this is not a paid political announcement) literally tens of thousands of people turn- ed to golf for leisure, had their appetites whetted, and their appreciation of the game's mysteries glossed. They were sit- ting ducks for the touring pros and the big-money tournaments. In this atmos- phere the pro, the man who had mastered the humbling game, was a persona grata .in spades. Many a time he could afford to pass up a tournament because he could collect as much as $1,000 for giving a one- day demonstration or playing an 18-hole exhibition at a private club. And now, obviously, it's his wife who is being wooed and pursued. As they say in Until, then, not many people could afford 'the luxury of golf, a costly enough pas- the advertisements, never underestimate the power of ..... and all that jazz. full-blown, highly paid celebrity. Television makes him 'available in every man's living room every Saturday and Sunday (on film), and tournament promoters con- stantly seek new ways of luring him to a particular event (in the flesh). A case in point is the Canadian Open whose $10,000 purse once attracted the best golfers on the continent to Canada every summer. Now, $27,500 isn't enough to assure the presence of the top dozen. Next month the Open will be staged at the St. George's Golf and Country club on Toronto's western outskirts. The pot is regarded as sufficiently unattractive as to induce the promoters to throw in a revolutionary gimmick. For the last few weeks, officials of the Open have been 'engaging in a direct-mail campaign to entice not specta- tors to bring their money but golfers to please come and take it away. This is a kind of indirect direct-mail cam- 'paign in that the letters aren't going to the golfers, but to the golfers' wives. : The theory here is that while the golfer might pooh- pooh the $27,500 in his affluence, his wife will be unable to resist the goodies the Canadians have arranged for her. She will, the theory continues, induce her lord and master to make the trip. There is as much time and effort being spent right now at St. George's on thinking up divertissements for the little darlings as there is on, say, the canvassing of poten- tial season-ticket subscribers. As this prose goes to the 'first tee, the golfers' wives were being offered a scenic tour of Niagara Falls, a baby-sitter service for golf week, a swimming party at the private pool of a St. George's member, and a luncheon at which a full-color movie of Get ASPIRIN T. M. REG, IT'S ALL PAIN RELIEVER! FAST PAIN RELIEF "HEADACHE + COLD DISCOMFORT + NEURALGIA * ARTHRITIC PAIN OF BAYER