Evening star., 1932-01-09

TRANCIS OUIMET is the Oldest
- golfer to win the amateur cham
pionship of the United States
during the last 20 years. Sounds
strange, doesn't 1t, that q man at the
age Of SO years should be classed as
veteran In q game which has been
called for decades IAN old mans
game" Yet Ouimet, at the age Of 3S,
Is the oldest holder of the amateur
championship since walter J. Travis
won his last title back in 1903. Judged
by the age of most of the champions
Of amateur golf in recent years Ouimet
Is doddering old veteran about ready
to be laid away on the competitive
shelf. But he proved out there in the
melee of Chicago last September that
the eyes Of veterans of 80 years and
the raw courage OF game tempered
through two decades Of big time COM
petition, may prevail against the bril-
lance of men many years their junior.
The Bobby Jones era Of champion
ship winning when the rotund Georgian
was sweeping everything before him In
the years from 1928 to 1881, found the
championship going to young men be-
low the age of 80 years. Jones won his
first amateur In 1924 at the age of %,
eight years after he started In the
championship over the same course
Merion-at the age Of IA. He won his
last championship, also at Merton, in
1880 at the age Of %. Won Elm was
veteran OF as years when he won from
Jones at Baltusrol in 1926, and Harrison
r. Johnston was 35 when he won at
Pebble Beach in 1929.
THICK EVANS, who has won two
~ amateur championships, was only
80 years Of age when he won his
last title, back In 1920, at Roslyn, and
Jerry Travers was a mere kid as years
go when he won his last title at Garden
City in 1918. william c. Fownes, the
Pittsburgh millionaire. was classed as a
veteran when he won in 1910 yet he
was not as old as Ouimet was when he
won at Chicago last year. Walter
Travis, the Australian-born master of
the game, who won his last American
amateur back in 1908, was well into his
forties at the time of that victory. But
Travis did not take up the game until
his middle thirties, and as a potential
championship winner Travis did not
figure after 1910.
4Ac OIO HldH SdiIlc 10 d game lOT
youngsters and the figures prove IT, for
Ouimet at at the age Of 38 Is the oldest
championship winner among the am
ateurs since the mauve decade. Per-
haps it Is the strenuous championship
test of six days grueling play that
wears down the older men, but whatever
1t Is, amateur championship golf is no
game for a man not in the pink of
physical condition. And after 35 1t be-
comes increasingly difficult to keep in
that condition. Measured by any stand
ard, golf in major championships Is
tough strain, both on the physical and
mental side. Much more nerve strain
Is involved in the comparatively quiet
game Of golf than in those games like
tennis, foot ball and base ball, where
Violent physical activity is needed. The
nerve strain of 4-foot putt which may
win or lose championship transcendS
that of any other sport. It's only coun-
terpart might be in a championship
billiard game, another game where
nerves are the main factor.
So 1t Is all the more remarkable that
Ouimet-the man who first brought
golf to the front page when he won
from Vardon and Ray at Brookline in
19l3-should win the amateur cham
plonship at the age of 3s. The old
mans game Is young mans pastime
over the years.
Gene SaraZen will not be invited to
play in the National Capital open tour
ney If 1t is held this year at the Ken
wood Golf and Country Club. officials
OF the Kenwood club, displeased at the
remarks made by Sarazen during his
play in the championship event last
November, announce they will not in