Evening star., 1949-06-19
Defending Champion
2DoWn and 4 10 Go,
Beats Roth on 18Th
By MerreII WhittIesey

Two oOWus anu 1ouI 10 play
against Joe Roth, an unorthodox
golfer from Aberdeen Proving
Grounds. Ralph Bogart suddenly
pulled himself together yesterday
and beat Roth in 10 holes to set
up a duplicate Of last years final
In the Maryland State Amateur
championship.
In today's 36-hole final at Co.
lumbia Country Club, Bogart
again meets Jim Gardner. the
club champion from Washington
G&CC, who has played the best
golf Of the tournament to date
The first 18 starts at 10 am, the
second at 2 pm.
In a subpar final at Woodholme
last year. Bogart defeated Gard
ner, 2 up. Last week in the Mid
die Atlantic final Bogart beat
Gardner, and !, and in a pair
of invitation tournament clashes
prior to that each won one.
Roth, a warrant officer who has
not attracted any sectional golfing
attention since he scored two up
sets in the State Amateur last
year, had Bogart's number for
q while yesterday in a rainy semi
final match.
Controls Sweeping Hook.
Roth plays a wide. sweeping
hook OF the tee and with his
irons, but he has it under con-
troll to the extent his shots usu-
ally wind up in the fairway. But
better than that was his short
game against Bogart. In the first
~ holes of the match he dropped
three 20-footers and holed full
wedge shot for a birdie on the
12th.
Roth won the 18th and 14th
with pars and going to the 18th
Bogart was two down. He won
that hole by smacking a long
iron shot to six inches from the
cup. They halved Is and II but
Bogart sent the match into extra
holes with a par on 18 while Roth
misgauged his second and hooked
to the left Of the green. Bogart
then won the 10th with par four.
Roth came mighty close to
elimination before he met Bogart.
He was five down at the end OF
eight holes against Eddie john
ston of c. c. of Maryland in the
morning, four down and six to
play, but he finally won on the
2lst hole after Johnston missed
a two-foot putt on IS that would
have ended the match.
Gardner had his hands full
twice yesterday but won both
matches by 2-and-1 margins, in
the morning over Ken Scales Of
the c. c. Of Maryland and in the
afternoon against Jim Kinder Of
Prince Georges.
Near Par Despite Rain
Despite the steady downpour
Gardner played one over par golf
against Kinder, and needed It,.
One up and two to play. Gardner
dropped an 18-footer for a birdie
two on the 10th. only to see
Kinder hole a 10-footer for a
birdie two right behind him. Kind
er flubbed an approach on the
17th, however. and Gardner end
ed the match with q par.
Kinder was fortunate that a
Maryland State golf official was
not on hand. or otherwise he
probably would have drawn the
penalty for excessive time. On
numerous occasions he required
several minutes to set up a shot.
But Gardner apparently did not
allow 1t to disturb him.
In the morning Kinder made
short work of two-time champion
Spencer Overton, one-putting six
green's on the first nine and drub-
bing Overton. and 8. In fact.
Overton quit before the match
was over. prefering not to walk
another hole in the rain as he
faced almost certain defeat.
Bogart was the scrambler in
the morning as he edged Col. Jim
Wilson Of Army-Navy. 2 up. He
knocked q two-iron shot within
two feet Of ths pin on the 18th
to end 1t.