WALKER CUP

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 70, 24 March 1938, Page 24

WALKER CUP

AMERICA'S "UNDER THIRTY"

The American team for this year's Walker Cup match, to be played at St. Andrews on June 3 and 4, is one of the youngest teams that has ever visited England, says Robert H. K. Browning, in "Golfing."'

The "old head," he writes, "is supplied by Ouimet, the non-playing captain, who has taken part in every amateur international match between Great Britain and America since the series started in 1921, and is now fortyfour, but it is on "young shoulders" that the real work will fall, for Johnny Goodman, the oldest playing member of the side, is only twenty-eight!

American selectors are handicapped even more than British by the difficulty of judging between the claims of players from widely separated districts, who have almost no opportunity of measuring swords with one another except in the amateur championship itself, and they have therefore got into the habit of relying upon that one event as their chief guide in the choice of their team. This year they have followed its results more closely than ever before, and six out of the eight players who reached the quarter-finals in last year's championship at Alderwood have been awarded their places. They are Johnny Goodman, the winner; Ray Billows, the runner-up; Johnny Fischer and Marvin Ward, the defeated semifinalists; and Charles Kocsis and F. Haas. Goodman and Fischer were both members of the team which defeated Britain so handsomely at Pine Valley two years ago, and two other members of that team who have retained their places are Charles Yates and Reynolds Smith. The spear-head of the American attack will be Goodman and Fischer. These two belong to the same class of players as Bobby Jones and Lawson Little. Young as they are, they have been in the forefront of American golf for the last six years. CONTRASTING STYLES. Yet it would be difficult to find two players -who would afford a more amazing contrast of golfing styles. Goodman is short and stocky, and has the reputation of being a second Hagen in the courage of his recovery shots and the confidence of his putting. Fischer, six feet two inches in his stocking soles, and as graceful as a reed in the wind, is probably the longest of a team of long drivers, often reaching a green with a drive when others have to struggle to get home With two woods. Goodman, who learned his golf as a caddie at Omaha, came into the limelight by a victory in the trans-Mississippi Amateur Championship when he was seventeen. He was' only twenty-four when he carried off the American Open from the flower of the American professionals in 1933. Fischer also was only seventeen when he distinguished himself by finishing "first amateur" in the Western Open Championship. Three years later, as a student at Michigan, he won the Inter-collegiate Championship. Two seasons ago Fischer won the American Amateur title, defeating Jack:McLean in the famous final that went;'to the thirty-seventh hole. That year Fischer knocked out Goodman in the semi-final, but last year it was Goodman's turn to win and Fischer's to go down in the semi-final.

As usual, the team includes a fair proportion of former winners of the Inter-collegiate Championship. Fischer is one. of them. Charles Yates is another. He, was a finalist in last year's Southern Championship.

Kocsis," ' a twenty-four-year-old youngster from Detroit* won the intercollegiate title in 1936, and also finished "first amateur" in the American Open. He is the Michigan State champion and was runner-up in last year's Western Championship. . '

Fred Haas, a 'long, .lean youngster from New -Orleans, the present holder of the Inter-collegiate. Championship, is a student at .Louisiana State University. Two years ago he ■ walked off with the Canadian Amateur Championship, defeating C. Ross " Some^ville' by 3 and 2 in the semi-final, and last year he reached the 'final once more. He is also the holder; of'; the ■■'-. Southern Championship. ■ " '.': < '■: : ''*

Ray Billows, who-is only 'twentythree, was the-sensation lof v-the 1935 New York State-Championship at Winged Foot. ; ;'-. 1

He won that event in real "soldier of fortune" fashion, holing a putt past a, stymie on the'last'greeirirrthe final, after being 4 -; : dqwn v,;.jvith 8 to play. His success inreaching the final of the national eyent: last year was only the culmination of/three seasons of' first-class golf.;. .