At Last, Goodman

When Richard Male's iron shot from the 7th tee hit an apple tree, it stuck in the crotch, 15 ft. from the ground. He conceded the hole. When Reynolds Smith's ball rolled into a hole made by one of Oregon's gophers, the United States Golf Association's general counsel searched his rule book, finally found a clause providing that a ball may be moved without penalty if it enters a hole made by a "burrowing animal " The U.S.G.A.'s President John U Jackson pronounced the galleries the biggest since Bobby Jones retired, complimented them for extraordinary good behavior. Bobby Jones was on hand to play golf for fun, watch those who were not.

This was the National Amateur Golf Championship, which was being played in the Pacific Northwest (at Portland's Alderwood Country Club) for the first time in history. In a downpour which soaked the players the first day. Oldtimer Francis Ouimet, who won the Amateur in 1914 and again in 1931, found his ball as unmanageable as an eel, dropped out with an 85 But another oldtimer. Charles ("Chick") Evans, who held the title in 1916 and 1920, ran off a neat 74 on the mushy course in the first round of his 28th national championship. It was Evans' quarter-final match (against the defending champion, young Johnny Fischer) however, which stirred sentimentalists like Grantland Rice most profoundly. The match was delayed when a careless caddy taking a practice swing struck Mrs. Evansin the mouth with his club felled her loosened several teeth. After the start, Evans found his iron shots undependable and he was so tired from winning his morning match, against onetime Public Links Champion Frank Strafaci. that his timing went bad. Nevertheless, he was not beaten until the final green, where he looked up prematurely on a short approach shot then missed a 5-ft. putt. Next day in the semi-finals Champion Fischer's woods were crooked, his irons ragged his putter helpless, and he was beaten 6 & 5 by Ray Billows, straight-hitting, 23-year-old printing salesman of Poughkeepsie N. Y. In the other semi-final match Johnny Goodman, Omaha insurance salesman nosed out Marvin ("Bud") Ward, Tacoma tax clerk. That left Goodman v. Billows for the final.

Practically no one had ever heard of dumpy, self-possessed Johnny Goodman 1n 1929 when he calmly drove-up to the Pebble Beach course in California in a wheezing jalopy, stolidly qualified for the U. S. Amateur. Everyone had heard of him after the first day of match play because he put out the great Bobby Jones in the first round. Nowadays Goodman sells much more insurance, travels in better cars, wears better clothes. He was third-best amateur in the 1929 U. S. Open second-best in 1930, best in 1932 and again this year. In 1933 he won the Open against a held of crack professionals. In the U S Amateur he was runner-up in 1932 and a semifinalist in 1935 and 1936, but never won it. Last week he seemed overdue.

Billows found himself able to hit longer tee shots than the stolid man from Omaha Nevertheless he was 2 down at the tenth. He squared the match with birdies on the next two holes, but found himself 2 down again when he went to lunch In the afternoon round, he reduced Goodman's lead to one hole with an eagle 3 on the par 5 19th. But at the 33rd he was 2 down again. He moved up to 11 down on the short 34th when Goodman missed a short putt, and they halved the next hole in par 48. Billows had to win the last a 561-yd par 5 hole, for a tie and extra-hole playotf. Trying to reach the green in 2, he hit a tremendous drive but his second shot rolled off the fairway hit a woman spectator, stopped in the rough. :s third shot was 25 ft. beyond the pin and his try for a birdie rolled past the cup. Meanwhile Goodman, playing smoothly and calmly, was six feet from the cup in 3. Even if Goodman took two putts from six feet, the halved hole would do his opponent no good, so Billows conceded the putt. Johnny Goodman had won the Amateur at last.

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