The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-03-12
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AMERiCA's BEST AMATEURS

T
 10-ROtan
 For No. 10 in my list of foremost amateur golfers in this country we
 go to the Lone Star State-and any
 one who looks in that direction can almost see the tall, rangy figure of George Rotan projecting up from the | plains of Texas.
 Rotan is included in this position in my selections because of his golfing ability plus his golfing head. In addition to this he Is an extraordi- narily fine butter. These characteris- tics should rightly designate him, think, as better player than Won Elm, Perry Adair and Jimmy Manion | of St. Louis.
 No list of the best amateurs of the country could be complete, however. without the names of those three players, so l shall include them as alternates. George Von Elm is Pa cific northwest and trans Mississippi champion. His home is in Salt Lake City. Perry Adair is southern anna teur champion. He lives in Atlanta. James Manion is Missouri amateur champion.
 Has Great Head Work l have seen Rotan display some wonderful head work in his playing and 1 know that he is thus d real student of the game in addition to being a fine shot-maker There comes a time in finished golfing when the
 very best of shotmaking falls just 1 little shy of championship success. There are so many fine players that their shots from tee OF farway fall almost identically in the same place,
 as far as distance is concerned. But out on the course there are dozens of little tricks of play which result
 from thinking ahead of the shot in
 hand and it really is these things which give the fine golfer the advan-
 tage he needs.
 | Chicks Strategy | It was a play of the kind, for in stance, which captured me my first national championship. We had
 green some 400 yards from the tee ] The pin stood at the far side of the
 green. there being about six feet be-
 tween the hole and The far edge of
 the green. I put my second shot to some rough on the near side of this green while my opponent played to i the open fairway at the side of the
 green His ball rolled little more
 than he anticipated so that he was l a little beyond the green, which was | the danger of the shot. My ball fell absolutely dead in the rough at the
 near end of the green. In shooting
 for the pin I had the whole green to hit. l simply clipped up and let my ] ball roll clear across the green to the
 pin, not needing even a touch of spin
 to stop me down. My opponent, from
 his position, had but six feet of the
 green to peg at--the narrow strip | beyond the pin-and this hard shot
 he had made for himself threw him
 off and he rolled to a very bad posi-
 tion. l took the hole and the cham pionship with that one shot sent de-
 liberately to the rough.
 1 George Rotan is the type of player
 who would have seen that opportu-
 nity and taken advantage of it. He
 has some phenomenal records in the
 southwest.
 Makes Good Shots | l have played many games with Ro-
 tan and have seen him make as good shots as can be made by any anna | teur or professional. l believe he held the record for the Pine Valley golf course, Philadelphia. America's most difficult course for many years. One season he won the Lynnewood Hall cup at Philadelphia from a field which included Jerome Travis and Max Marston and other high lights of the east.
 My acquaintance with Rotan began in 1914, when I played round of golf with him at Houston. Joe Bole, one of the very best students of golf in
 this country, remarked to me on this occasion that he thought Rotan was on the way to becoming great golfer. Later on l had occasion to play with George at Mayfield club in i Cleveland. with Wilbur Brooks, Fred Borton and Joe Bole.
 He is a rangy Texan over six feet in height, and therefore, gets big sweep on a long wooden shot. I | have always considered him an espe- cially good butter. Time and again ! l have seen him hole six, eight and ten-foot butts when necessary His weakest shots, in my opinion, are those full iron ones to the green in. which he tries to use too much strength.
 l As I have pointed out previously in this series. any one of these good players has 1t within his game to come right up to the top any time. Championships from now on, for a few years, could easily fall to any one of them.
 Copyright, John F. Dille Co)