The best amateur golfers in the U.S. include a New Jersey printer named
Billy Dear, Patty Berg's kid brother Herman, onetime world's No. 1
Tennist Ellsworth Vines and hard-boiled Jim Oleska, a
Brooklyn cop with a cross-handed grip. Billy Dear was out of play last
week because Mrs. Dear is expecting a little Dear this week. The rest
of these low-scorers and 146 others who survived sectional qualifying
tests met in Omaha for the 45th, most upsetting and least sportsmanlike
U.S. Amateur golf championship. On opening day it looked as if Ellsworth Vines might, with a little
luck, become the first man to win a U.S. championship at both tennis
and golf. With an elegant, easy swing similar to that of famed Francis
Ouimet, Vines shot a 72 in the first round. It was not the best score
of the day . But it was better than that posted by Defending Champion Dick
Chapman, 1939 Champion Marvin Ward, onetime British Amateur
Champion Charley Yates and onetime U.S. Open
and Amateur Champion Johnny Goodman, the pride of Omaha, who was
playing on his home course. The second day Vines shot 78 and qualified for match play. Trailed by a
gallery nearly as large as the one that followed home-town Hero
Goodman, Vines got jittery, lost his first match, 1 up on the 19th
hole, to a Tulsan named Ted Gwin. For a comparative beginner, Vines was
in good company. Put out in the same round were Goodman, Chapman,
Yates, Argentine Open Champion Mario Gonzales and nearly every other
name player except Bud Ward and Ray Billows . Billows and Ward had met in the final two years ago, and the gallery
began to look forward to another meeting—with Billows walloping Ward
this time. But when the field narrowed down to two, Billows was on the
sidelines. Facing Ward for the 36-hole final was Billows' conqueror:
handsome Pat Abbott, Hollywood movie extra and onetime National Public
Links golf champion.For some reason, Ward, an ice-veined 28-year-old Northwesterner who earns a
livelihood as secretary of a Spokane “Boosters” Club, was unpopular
with the predominantly Omaha gallery. According to widespread rumor, he
had made disparaging comments about the Omaha Field Club course. Their
dander up, touchy townsmen, 3,000 strong, booed Ward's shots, tried to
rattle him as though he were a baseball pitcher. It got so bad
President Pierce of the U.S. Golf Association interrupted the match,
appealed for better sportsmanship. Despite their shocking action, the self-assured Northwesterner played
brilliantly, was 4 up after 18 holes, quelled Abbott's courageous
challenge, took the match on the 33rd green, 4 & 3. Whereupon the
gallery wrote a new chapter in sporting misbehavior. They ignored the
Champion although they scrambled for his ball, lifted Abbott to their
shoulders, carried him off.
