Greatest Amateur Golfer

I attended the opening round of the 2019 English Men’s Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship for the Brabazon Trophy, played at Alwoodley Golf Club near Leeds, England. As can be seen from the photo, my temporary office for the day was located just outside the clubhouse very close to the 1st tee…not a bad working environment!!

Some of the world’s best amateur golfers were competing on this stunning and very challenging championship golf course and then just after lunch, a puzzling thought drifted into my mind…

“Who was/is the greatest amateur golfer?”

Recalling my train of thought on the day it went something like:

1. Alwoodley Golf course was designed by the famous golf architect Dr Alister MacKenzie.
2. He designed many other famous courses, in particular, Augusta National and Cypress Point.
3. Cypress Point was the setting for ‘The Match: The Day the Game of Golf Changed Forever’ by Mark Frost, a four-ball better-ball match between the best professionals at that time (Ben Hogan/Byron Nelson) and the best amateurs (Harvie Ward/Ken Venturi).
4. Mark Frost also wrote ‘The Greatest Game Ever Played: A True Story’ based on the early life of US amateur golf champion Francis Ouimet.
5. How on earth do I even start to address never mind possibly answer this self-imposed question?

(For the purposes of interim completeness, the Stroke play championship was won by 16-year-old Ben Schmidt (from Yorkshire, England), becoming the youngest ever winner of the Brabazon Trophy, posting a winning score of 13 under par…and both of the books mentioned above are an absolute must-read).

Criteria

I quickly appreciated/realised that this exercise to determine and to then call out the greatest amateur golfer of all time is incredibly subjective. Like all sports, it is impossible to compare elite sportsmen and sportswomen from different generations. However, I have attempted to introduce a cloak of objective criteria to wrap around the question to create some semblance of structure, including:

• Results and Performances in Amateur Championships (National and International)
• Results and Performances in Major Professional Championships (as an Amateur)
• Representative Honours (e.g. biennial Walker Cup and Curtis Cup Matches)
• Longevity as an Elite Amateur
• Legacy, Influence and X-Factor
• Awards (e.g. World Golf Hall of Fame inductee)

After a couple of days of ‘analysis’, I finally drew up a shortlist of 12 amateur golfers spanning many golfing generations. After further thought I narrowed this down to a final list of 6, saying au revoir for the purposes of this exercise to:

• Michael Bonallack (5 British Amateur, 4 English Amateur & 4 Brabazon Stroke Play).
• Joe Carr (3 British Amateur & selected a record 11 times for the Walker Cup).
• Glenna Collett-Vare (6 US Amateur, 2 Canadian Amateur & 5 Curtis Cup appearances).
• Jay Sigel (US Amateur, British Amateur, US Mid-Amateur & 9 Walker Cup appearances).
• Harvie Ward (2 US Amateur, British Amateur, Canadian Amateur & won all 6 foursomes and singles in 3 Walker Cup matches).
• Tiger Woods (3 consecutive US Junior & 3 consecutive US Amateur).

Thus, here are the final 6, ordered alphabetically by surname, with a brief golfing resume for each player.

Dorothy Campbell

Dorothy Campbell was born in 1883 in North Berwick, Scotland. In her early teens, she joined the North Berwick Ladies Golf Club where she became a pupil of Ben Sayers (the famous Scottish Professional Golfer and Golf Club Manufacturer).

She won the Scottish Ladies Championship in 1905, 1906 and 1908 and was runner up in 1907 and 1909.

In 1909 she played for the first time in the US Amateur Championship and won, successfully defending the following year. In 1909 she also won the British Amateur Championship at Royal Birkdale defeating Florence Hezlet 4&3 in the final. Two years later at Royal Portrush she again won the British Amateur, this time defeating Violet Hezlet, Florence’s sister!!

She moved to Canada in 1910 and won three consecutive Canadian Amateur Championships, thus becoming the first woman to win the British, US and Canadian Amateur Championships.

In 1913 Dorothy moved from Canada to the United States and became an American citizen. Despite winning a number of prestigious amateur tournaments over the next few years and finishing runner up in the 1920 US Amateur, many women were now out-driving her and a realisation that her technique would have to change to compete at the highest level.

Thus Dorothy set about transitioning her grip from a baseball-style to the (modern) Vardon grip. This change finally paid dividends when in 1924 she won her 3rd and final US Amateur. To this day she is the oldest ever winner (age 41) of the US Women’s Amateur and the record for the most years between the first and last US Amateur titles.

In 1978, Dorothy Campbell was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Bobby Jones

Robert Tyre Jones Jr. was born in 1902 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. As a young boy, he had health issues for which golf was prescribed as a possible cure!!

In 1916, aged only 14, Bobby Jones won the Georgia Amateur Championship. This success resulted in him receiving an invite to play in the 1916 US Amateur, where he reached the quarterfinals – a phenomenal performance.

In 1920, he qualified for his first US Open. In the first two rounds, he was paired with none other than Harry Vardon…Jones eventually finished tied eighth, only 4 shots behind the winner Ted Ray.

In 1923, at the age of 21, Bobby Jones captured his first major, namely the US Open following an 18 hole playoff against Bobby Cruickshank, which he won by 2 strokes.

Over the next 7 years, he dominated the world of golf, winning 13 majors, out of the 20 majors he entered!!

• US Open – 1923, 1926, 1929 & 1930
• The Open – 1926, 1927, 1930
• US Amateur – 1924, 1925, 1927, 1928 & 1930
• British Amateur – 1930

His crowning glory was in 1930 when he won the Grand Slam…this achievement will never be repeated and will always live in the memory of golf fans and golf historians alike. He also represented the US five times in the biennial Walker Cup, winning 9 of his 10 matches.

Bobby Jones amateur career finished at the end of the 1930 grand slam season when he retired aged only 28.

In 1974, Bobby Jones was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Francis Ouimet

Francis Ouimet was born in 1893 in Brookline, Massachusetts, United States. His family lived near the 17th hole of the Brookline Country Club but were relatively poor. At that time amateur golf was very much the preserve of the wealthy.

Aged about 11, Francis Ouimet started to caddy at the Country Club and taught himself to play with borrowed clubs. Before long he was the best high school golfer in the state of Massachusetts.

In 1913 he won his first major event, namely the Massachusetts Amateur Championship. Later that year he lost to Jerome Travers in the quarterfinals of the US Amateur. He then entered the 1913 US Open, which was played at the Brookline Country Club…and as the saying goes ‘the rest is history’.

He finished T1 with the best professionals at that time, Britains Harry Vardon and Ted Ray. In the 18 hole playoff that followed, Ouimet shot 72 for a 5 shot victory over Vardon and became the first amateur to win the US Open.

He also won the US Amateur Championship in 1914 and 1931 and played in the first eight Walker Cup Matches.

In 1951 Francis Ouimet became the first non-Briton to be elected Captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, St Andrews and in 1974 he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Jerome Travers

Jerome Travers was born in 1887 in New York City, United States. Unfortunately, I have been unable to discover much about his early golfing life.

He was regarded by his contemporaries as one of the best, if not the best, match play golfers of his generation – the most feared player of the early 1900s. He was also recognised as the finest putter by fellow golfers such as Harold Hilton.

He won the US Amateur on 4 occasions (1907, 1908, 1912 & 1913). Jerome Travers and Bobby Jones are the only golfers to win this national championship more than three times. He also won the Metropolitan Amateur five times between 1906 and 1915.

In 1915, he became the second amateur to win the US Open…for whatever reason he never entered this major championship again!! Theories at the time suggested that he might have been suffering from what today would be termed ‘burnout’. His amateur career effectively ended at the age of 28.

In 1979, Jerome Travers was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Walter Travis

Walter Travis was born in 1862 in Maldon, Victoria, Australia. What makes Walter Travis unique amongst the final 6 is that he did not start playing golf until he was 35!!

In 1886, he travelled to the United States whilst working for an Australian company that exported hardware and construction products. In 1890 he married an American lady and in the same year became an American citizen.

On a trip to England in 1896, he purchased his first set of golf clubs, so that he could play golf with his friends back in the States. He studied golf instruction books and practised relentlessly and incredibly within two years reached the semi-final of the US Amateur.

In 1900, only four years after picking up a golf club for the first time,  Walter won the US Amateur Championship, successfully defending his title in 1901 and winning for the third time in 1903.

In 1904, he became the first American golfer to win the British Amateur, defeating Edward Blackwell in the final 4&3 at Royal St Georges.

In 1979 Walter Travis was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Joyce Wethered

Joyce Wethered was born in 1901 in New Malden, England. Growing up in pre-war England, she took up and learnt the game of golf alongside her elder brother Roger. Their father Herbert was the author of several non-fiction books, including a couple of books on golf.

Her brother Roger, playing as an Amateur, lost in a 36 hole playoff to Jock Hutchison at the 1921 Open Championship, held at the Old Course St Andrews (though he did win the British Amateur two years later). As an additional nugget of golf trivia, Roger lost 7&6 in the final of the 1930 British Amateur to Bobby Jones!!

Joyce won the British Amateur Championship on 4 occasions (1922, 1924, 1925 & 1929) and she won the English Amateur Championship five times consecutively (1920 to 1924).

In 1932 she was the playing captain of the Great Britain & Ireland team in the inaugural Curtis Cup played at Wentworth Golf Club, England.

Although she effectively retired from competitive golf by 1930, many commentators at the time rated Joyce Wethered as the best female golfer of the pre-WW2 era. Some commentators thought American golfer Glenna Collet-Vare (one of the golfers that made my shortlist of 12) was better but Wethered won all three of their head-to-head matches:

• Match 1 – Won 4&3 (semi-final of British Amateur)
• Match 2 – Won 3&1 (final of British Amateur played over 36 holes…at one stage Joyce was 5 down!!)
• Match 3 – Won 6&4 (1932 Curtis Cup)

Of the many testimonials, the best was probably from Bobby Jones who stated: “I have not played golf with anyone, man or woman, amateur or professional, who made me feel so utterly outclassed”…and this from the man (as covered earlier in this article) who won his era’s Grand Slam.

In 1975, Joyce Wethered was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Greatest

In the end, and rather surprisingly, I found the decision quite easy. After capturing the golfing resume of the final 6 it came down to a sudden-death playoff between Bobby Jones and Joyce Wethered…but as Bobby Jones considered Joyce Wethered to be the best golfer, man or woman, he had seen then in my humble opinion the greatest amateur golfer of all time is:

Joyce Wethered

Over to You

Of all the articles I have published to date, this is by far the most subjective but also the most enjoyable to investigate and write. I would really like to hear the thoughts of Golfing Herald readers on who you think is the greatest amateur golfer of all time and the reason(s) why?