Evening star., 1938-09-14
TIES FOR EIGHTH
QUALIFYING SPOT
D. c. Golfers ISL Just Five
Over MoreIand's Medal.
Winning Score.
BY WALTER McCALLUM,
Star Stan Correspondent.

Z IL / 0oO xt<Ix1, NJCPts A1.-49kS S0ALo Va
amateur golf started booming today
over Oakmont's rambling reaches with
only Is survivors of what looks like
the toughest championship in years
scheduled to survive the black Wednes-
day Of the national simon-pure cham
pionship, the opening match play
rounds One of those who can, with
. gentle smile from Lady Fortune,
reach the final Is in the championship,
is 19-year-old Bobby Brownell, the
tow-headed Duke University student
and lone qualifler from Washington
and the Middle Atlantic area.
Bobby matched shots today in the
first Of four l8-hole matches with
tough Reynolds Smith of Dallas, Tex,
and is in a spot where he can do all
right II he stays in the groove which
landed him in tie for eighth place
among the top amateur golfers Of the
land in the medal test which ended
yesterday.
Not in years has an amateur entrant
from the Capital done as well. The
blond youngster from the Manor
Country Club put together rounds Of
78 and 73 for Isl total to top a
flock Of big-time stars in the medal
round. He is today rated one Of the
budding young cracks of the amateur
golfers Of the land and with a little
break on the putting green he can do
a lot Of heavy shelling in his cham
pionship.
McLeod's Prediction Right.
You have to hand it to Fred Nc
Leod, Columbia pro, as 4 long grange
golf prognosticator. Two weeks ago
Freddie told me, without any hesita-
ton, that 146 would win the medal and
160 would qualify. He hit it smack
on the nose, for Gus Moreland's LAG
grabbed the dinky little gold bauble
which the United States Golf Asso-
citation hangs on its top amateur of
the year. And late last evening IL
guys tied at 100 played down Oak
mont's lengthy first hole for seven
places. That rives Freddie rating
ton league and sends him to the head
Of the class.
This championship, already in the
bizarre class, is even more unothodoX
in that not single player Of undis-
puted class failed to qualify. All the
Walker Cup team members made it
beyond the medal round. The only
failures were the aging Chick Evans,
Tony Torrance of England and Scotty
Campbell. q member of the 1886
Walker Cup outfit. Chicks champion
ship days are behind him, Terrence
never has been an American threat
and Campbell is an in-and-outer 1t
is strictly a tournament of proven
class and 1t proves once more that
great golf course weeds out the unfit
quicker and better than any seeding
operation could do.
But the weeding-out process has only
begun. Four 18-hole matches faced the
81 qualifiers today. two today and two
tomorrow, that will leave four men to
carry on Friday morning, with two
36-hole matches to come up Friday
and Saturday. And it wouldn't require
any great stretch of Imagination to
see Bobby Brownell in there Friday
morning. The towhead has proven
his ability to whack the ball around
this course. His golf here sticks him
on top of the simon pures of Wash
ington without any shadow Of ques-
ton, and even if he doesn't win the
District amateur title next week. Bob
by will be top amateur Of the year
around the Capital.
Spotlight Matches Today.
Outstanding matches today were
these:
s:55 am-Bobby Brownell, Wash
ington. VS.. Reynolds Smith, Dallas,
Tex. Walker Cup team member.
John P. Burke, intercollegiate cham
pion from Georgetown University, who
got in via the play-off route, VS.. Willie
Turnesa, New York.
John Goodman, defending champion
from Omaha. VS.. Sid Richardson,
Western college champ.
Charlie Yates, British amateur
champion from Atlanta, VS.. Van Saw
age. Salt Lake City.
Gus Moreland, medalist, from Peo-
ria, Ill, VS.. Bobby Dunkelberger, High
Point, N. c.
Bobby Brownell definitely belongs in
the top flight of American amateur
golf. And kid who can finish in the
Rre% -, ha oI d. ~
national amateur championship has
something more than a prayer and a
putt But I wonder how many people
realize that Bobby's final ~ holes in
the qualifying rounds would be away
up on any one else in the field? He
played that stretch in two shots over
par, after a wild opening nine when
it looked as If he was going to miss by
q mile.
Boldness Pays.
That AZ over the first nine came
from combina ton Of taut nerves and
jittery putting. Then he took the wraps
of. He went for everything boldly
from that moment 1t paid dividends.
Quite piece of golf the kid has shot
in his second try in the big time of
amateur golf. He finished away ahead
Of flock Of better known guys. such
as Billows, Goodman, Strataci, Fischer
and few others whom you read about
over your morning coffee. The kid is in
. happy stroking mood and he can 60
. long way.
It's kids tournament any way you
figure 1t. Look at l8-year-old Ralph
Bogart, up for the first time, doing 162
and missing by hair. The rest of the
local entrants had no chance. Yoder
went out with his first-round IS and
Miller B. Stevinson. opening with a
70, ran into too much trouble to quail
fy. Martin Mccarthy never was close.
The course was too long for the Bea-
yer Dam Irishman and he> was the
first to admit it.
But maybe if they hadn't stacked
the deck against Yotier and Greiner