Evening star., 1940-09-01
&inker, Bogart, Shea
Taking LOT Of Golf
To Winged Foot
Peacock and BrowneII
Shed No Tears Over
Failure to QuuIify


tional Capital to play in the Ma
tional Amateur championship. So
far their efforts-good as the boys
have been - have amounted to
nothing. The best any of the WASH
ington entrants have been able to
do in recent years was the 1885 ef-
fort of Roger Peacock. Roger went
to the fourth round in the jamboree
at Cleveland, where he success
sively bumped off Hickman Greene,
Eddie Hogan and Bob Sweeney (the
1888 British amateur champ be-
fore he was knocked out by Eddie
Held.
This week three youngsters will
leave the Capital for the Winged
Foot Club of Mamaroneck, N. Y,
to play in the 44th amateur cham
pionship staged by the United
States Golf Association. They are
1s-year-old Earle Skinker of CO.
lumbia, 20-year-old Ralph Bogart
and 22-year-old Billy Shea, both
of Congressional.
Youth is on their side in the
amateur championship starting
September 8, but they have more
than that valuable quality. All three
of the lads pack lot of golf. Hav-
ing qualified sectionally for the big
show of amateur golf they have to
20 through another and a tougher
test-a 36-hole medal round in
which the "a top amateurs OF the
Nation will qualify for match play.
Failures Seek No Sympathy.
A lot of f1gurative tears are being
shed over the failure of Roger Pea
cock and Bobby Brownell to quail
ify for the championship. But
Roger himself was the first to shut
off the self-pity stuff. Il wasn't
good enough" he said. That would
seem to dispose of that. Brownell
was behind the 8-ball in the sec
tional rounds at Chevy Chase last
week, when, on top OF a broken
leg, he turned up with a sprained
ankle on the same leg. He couldn't
have gone far had he qualified.
That busted leg wouldn't hold up
over a tough 36-hole test. So you
can save your tears. Peacock and
Brownell don't need 'em.
Ralph Bogart, who led the local
entries with lat in the medal test,
failed to qualify for match play in
the 1888 championship after Sec
tionally making the grade. Billy
Shea, the rangy former George
town lad, qualified for match play
in the 1887 title tourney at Port
land, Greg, and went to the Sec
ond round. Little Earle Skinker,
who will be making his first ap-
pearance in the main show of anna
teur golf, goes into it with little
experience.
But you can't laugh off these
lads, even though they haven't made
any impressive showing to date.
Bogart happens to. be very good
golfer, a kid who has worked and
practiced until he has a swing
grooved as well as that of any pro.
Ralph has all the qualifications
of a very good competitor, includ-
ing that peerless quality which
says: There's the hole. I'll hit it."
Shea Most Experienced.
Billy Shea is the most experienced
of the three. Billy had the best
record of any of the college boys in
the intercollegiate team champion
ship last spring. College golf hap
pens to be pretty fast. Billy didn't
drop a match in that Eastern
League. If his putter becomes as
hot at Winged Foot as it was at
Chevy Chase, the tall youngster can
do some upsetting.
Nationally amateur golf is in the
doldrums. Nowadays you don't have
men of the class of the top ones Of
IS years ago. You couldn't class Bud
Ward, John Goodman and John
Fischer and Ray Billows and Art
Doering-regarded as the top anna
teurs of today-with men like Bobby
Jones, George Won Elm, Francis
Ouimet, Jesse Guilford and Jesse
Sweetser.
So, all in all, the trio of local
entrants-inexperienced as they are
In national competition-are not too
far behind the pack. They may do
all right. Amateur golf isn't the
tough stuff that makes pro play the
toughest of all games. There still
remains room for a flock of upsets.
And the local boys-if they qualify
for match play-may do their share
Of upsetting.
Brownen Family in Harmony.
All is we'll with the Brownell fam
lily now. Son Bobby, the links lumi-
nary from Manor, failed to qualify
for the National Amateur. Pop
Brownell wanted Bobby to 60 to
Winged Foot, while the Missus
thought Bob wouldn't do himself
. or his injured leg any good. Bobby
and his mother won the round when
Bob shot a flrst-round 86 and blew
himself out at Chevy Chase.
Benjamin Skinker, father of young
Earle, probably will go to Winged
Foot to see his son play. And Pop
Steward, who used to be q regular
at all the national championships,
probably will crash through the
bushes around the eighth green,
ready to take all bets.
We've missed Pop around the
championships for the last couple Of
years. We've missed him for two
reasons. He always carries pocket
full Of cigars, and he always takes
our money in trivial bets. We don't
know which Is better-to r,looch a
cigar from Pop or lose q few quar-
ters to him.