VICTIM

Ken Venturi
1964

SITE: Congressional Country Club, Bethesda, Md.

Champions are rarely victims, but on an oppressively hot Sunday, Venturi was the exception. At the close of the third round — this was when the final 36 holes were played on the same day — Venturi, visibly wracked by heat exhaustion and dehydration, missed two tap-in par putts. At the intermission, Venturi's physician fed him tea and salt tablets and advised him to withdraw. Venturi declined, and with his doctor trailing him with ice packs, shot even par over the next 18 holes to win by four. When it was all over, his then-wife, Conni, gave him a shoulder to lean on.