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The State of Amateur Golf by JOSEPH C

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The State of Amateur Golf by JOSEPH C USGA JOlJHl"AL A:\D TUlU' :i\lAl'\AGDIEl"T: NOVE:\IBER, 1951 7 The State of Amateur Golf By JOSEPH C. DEY, JR. USGA EXECUTIVE SECRETARY Suppose the following amateur golfers most any golfer can, upon occasion, had been selected as the Walker Cup outplay the best player for a hole. Team to represent the United States Therein lies much of the attraction in against Great Britain last spring: golf, much of its come-on quality. It is J. C. BENSON,of Pittsburgh, Pa. a game for the hopeful. L. M. CRANNELL,JR., of Dallas, An Appraisal of the Game Texas. But the exit of the favorites at Sau- JOSEPH F. GAGLIARDI,of Larch- con Valley prompts other thoughts. Any mont, N. Y. appraisal of competitive amateur golf ROBERTE. ECKIS, JR., of Buffalo, in our country today produces the fol- N. Y. lowing impressions: ROBERT W. KUNTZ, of Larch. 1. The number of low handicap mont, N. Y. players must be at an all-time high. WILLIAl\I J. PATTON, of Mor- 2. There are many players of na- ganton, N. C. tional championship calibre, yet there WILLIAl\1 H. PICARD, of Cleve- is no one standout. land, Ohio. 3. Despite the quality of play among LLOYD D. RIBNER, of White the best amateurs, it cannot seriously Plains, N. Y. c?mpare :vith that of the top profes- Capable golfers, all of them. But none SIOnals. of them was on the Walker Cup Team. 4. The American game is superior in- They were the players who eliminated ternationally. the 1951 Walker Cuppers from the 5. There is perhaps a record number Amateur Championship in September at of youngsters of real ability. the Saucon Valley Country Club, Beth- 6. The state of the game is wonder- lehem, Pa. fully healthy. This year's Cup Team was strong. It These impressions were pretty well had defeated Great Britain abroad, 6 confirmed at Saucon Valley. Item 1 was to 3. with three matches halved. It confirmed before the event started- defeated Canada in an informal match there were 1,416 entrants for the 51st at Saucon Valley, 10 to 2. Five of its Amateur Championship, ahout 200 more nine members have won either the than the previous all-time record and American or the British Amateur they all had handicaps not exceeding 4. Championship within the last three They were only a portion of the coun- years. try's players with such handicaps. But not a memher of the Team The absence of a real standout among reached the semi-final round at Saucon the amateurs sometimes brings on la- Valley. Three lost in the first round. ment among nostalgic old-timers. They Four'; others lost by the time the fourth sigh for the days of \Valler J. Travis, or round was completed. Jerome D. Travers, or Francis Ouimet The hasic reason for this state of af- and Chick Evans, or Bob Jones, or Law- fairs is found, of course, in the nature son Little Ibefore he turned pro) . of golf itself. It is a game of both un- Among them, those six players won 32 usual skill and unusual uncertainty. national championships here and in Play does not follow form with the same Great Britain: Jones won 13. Each was fid~lity as in many other games. AI- great in his day-a super golfer. Every 8 USGA ]OUIlNAL AND TURF MANAGEMENT: NOVEMBER, 1951 one of them except Travis won the Open no surprise. The 22-year-old Texas col- Championship; Jones in nine consecutive legian has heen a promising player for Opens won four times and was second several years. In the 1950 Amateur he four times. reached the fifth round and numbered Since Jones, the gap between top pro among his victims Dick Chapman, the golf and top amateur golf has gradually present British titleholder. widened with development of the pro At Saueon Valley, Maxwell had to circuit. The constant competition of the play well all week long to get past Tom circuit has evolved a small class of high- Strange, Jr., Bo Wininger, Harvey Ward, ly skilled pros whose chief activity is L. M. Crannell, Jr., his North Texas State playing golf, as distinguished from College teammate who holds the Trans- teaching it. Mississippi Championship; Arnold Blum, The fact that there is no super-golfer the Southern Champion, and finally Joe evident among the amateurs is not de- Gagliardi, the bearder of Walker Cup- plorable but, rather, natural. Competi- pers. tive golf for an amateur is theoretically Billy Maxwell is one of many young a secondary interest, subordinate to his players of real ability. In the last few vocation. Ronnie White, young English years it has been interesting to observe lawyer who is perhaps as skilled an the development of a new generation in amateur golfer as there is today, didn't national competition; the junior cham- even compete in the British Amateur this pionships which were started post-war year following the Walker Cup Match- have served a real purpose in this regard. he was simply too busy and it was too Tommy Jacobs, from Los Angeles, is costly. Several other British Walker only 16 years old but he was a semi- Cuppers also abstained. finalist at Saucon Valley; two months But competitive amateur golf, at least earlier he had won the USGA Junior in our country, is in a fine state of Amateur Championship. Willie Turnesa, repair. There are ever so many players the Walker Cup Captain, was put out by who can beat anybody else upon oc- young Bill Picard, son of Henry, former casion. PGA Champion. Crannell eliminated Maxwell and Gagliardi Dick Chapman. For instance, a great many followers There are vast numbers of others of the game never heard of Joe Gagliardi coming along - to name just a few who before September 12. The New York played at Saucon Valley: Ken Venturi, attorney then ended Sam UrzeUa's reign San Francisco; Jim Blair, Kansas City; as Champion at Saucon Valley - a reign Don BisplinghofI, Orlando, Fla.; Pat which, incidentally, marked Urzetta as Schwab, Dayton; Gay Brewer, Jr., Lex- a thorough Champion, as both a player ington, Ky.; Bud Holscher, Santa Mon- and a person; he was a credit to the ica, Cal.; Billy Key, Columhus. Ga.; game. Tim Holland, Rockville Centre, N. Y.; The next day Gagliardi defeated Char- Dave Stanley, Los Angeles; Billy Sixty, ley Coe, the 1949 Champion and one of Jr., Milwaukee. the best amateurs in the world. A couple Whether or not another super-golfer of months before Gagliardi had won the emerges from the new generation is not Metropolitan Amateur by defeating Jim- now important. The thing to cheer about my McHale in the 36-hole final. So here is that amateur competitive golf is healthy you had three leading members of the and vigorous. Walker Cup Team losing in serious com- The Saueon Valley Job petition to a 39-year-old week-end player. The game is aided imme~surably by Perhaps you had never heard of Billy tournaments such as Saucon Valley held. Maxwell until he won the Championship The Bethlehem club, with William H. this year. His victory, however, was (Continued on PO'Je 24) 24 USGA JOURNALAND TURF MAl'tAGEl\IENT:NOVEMBER,1951 13 (1) . Some question has been raised as to I am wondering. if player C in this case the correctness of this ruling because the mis. would be accepted as the official caddie, per- take occurred through wrong information given mitted to give advice, or should player B have by a forecaddie, as provided in Rule 13 (lb). been penalized according to USGA Rules. I considered that the forecaddie therein was Question by: WILLIAMR. SCHETTLER governed by "his", and referred only to the 518 NOBLE AVE. opponent's forecaddie. LAWRENCEPARK Question by: NORMANB. BEECHER,CHAIRMAN ERIE, PA. RULES COMMITTEE A.: The fact that B hired a caddie to carry BILTMOREFORESTCOUNTRYCLUB hjs clubs establishes this person as B's caddie BILTMORE,N. C. within the meaning of Definition 10. A.: Your decision was right. U B sought advice or took any aetion which The forecaddie mentioned in Rule 13 (lb) might have resulted in his receiving advice belongs, in effect, to the opponent's side. except from this caddie, he violated Rule 4(1), The forecaddie in the case described is an the penalty for which is loss of hole-see outside agency (see Definition 10 and Rule Rule 2(1). 15(Def.) ), and information from him has no As there was a referee for the match, at. more weight than information from any other tention is called to the fact that, under Rule outside agency, such as a spectator. A was 1(1), a referee's decision is final. not relieved of the responsibility of identifying his ball before playing it. THE STATE OF AMATEUR GOLF (Continued from Page 8) When Obstruction Is Out of Bounds No. 51-62. R. 7(4). Johnstone as President and Norborne Q.: A player's ball came to rest in the Berkeley as General Chairman, did a Cf.ugh three inches inside line of out-of-bounds superlative job in preparing facilities for slakes, but only five or six inches from front players and spectators alike. More than of building used as a shelter, which building is on ground out of bounds. that, they created an atmosphere of warm It was impossible to stroke ball in desired friendship which made everybody feel at d,rection or even take a stance. home. Competitors in general have never Under Rule 7(4b), may a player drop ball ill the rough not nearer the hole without pen- had a happier time.
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