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Show KS Vales of Wb &au?ide &ee Wmm JIMif S GRANTLAND RICE v-v (Copyright, 1022 New York Tribune. Inc ) "In just what order would you rani; the leading amateur golfers of the closing competitive season?" asks F. L. B. "We have had several arguments argu-ments filons this and would like to get more testimony on the subject." The only way golf, re 1 an be ranked, year by year, Is through their competitive com-petitive showing In tournament play. And judging by their season's play, wo figure there arc only seven amateur ama-teur golfers who in a. national way have taki n a distinct bad. , We rank these seven In the following follow-ing order 1.. Jesse Sweetser, New York Robert T. Jones. Jr.. Atlanta. .1. Charles Evans, Jr., Chicago 1 Jesse Guilford, Boston. I. Francis uulmet, Boston. 6. Robert A. Gardner, Chicago. 7. Rudy Knepper, Sioux city. if No 8 should be named, the cholcfl would not be very far from Frank Godchaux. of New Orleans, who was runner-up to Jones In the South i n who qualified Ut Skokle In the open and played well and who later reached the Inst eight In the amateur championship. cham-pionship. 'J'HF WHY M WHEREFORE Sweetser lr, named at the top through his brilliant spin at Brookllne, when- he beat Hunter, Guilford, Jones and Fvans In BUCCSSSlon. Also because ho won the Metropolitan Metropoli-tan title after turning In the lowest medal score. There can be no argument concerning concern-ing BweetSSr'B place as amateur champion. cham-pion. If the champion doesn't belong at the top. who does' The closest battle Is for second place between "Chick" Kvans and Bobby Jones. Jones won the Southern title and Evans won the Western. Jonefl defeated defeat-ed Wethered in the international test over the National links, and Evans f-totined C.-iven In thn mm II fvincr 'rounds at Brookllne. Jones had 145 land Evans 14S. Evans traveled two brunches further than Jones In the match play program that followed, both being beaten by th same man Hut at Skokle Jones finished only 0110 stroke back of Saruzen for the open championship, some ten or more strokes In front of "Chick." This remarkable re-markable showing over the seventy-two-hole route leaves him a slight margin but the two are almost along-sldo. Both had great years when one considers con-siders the quick reversals of golf form. It Is a peculiar fact that In match play Jones and Evans were only beat' en once by Sweetser while Sweet-er, Sweet-er, In turn, was beaten by Hooman at the National, by Conley in the Victory Vic-tory Cun and by Guilford at Piping Rock In the Islle Cup contests. ' NEXT IN LINE Jesse QuilfOCd belongs In fourth Place because he had a goo.i showing In the open at Skokle. because he led! the field In the amateur Championship at medal play with 144. 74 7". because be-cause he played great golf until Bwe t-ser t-ser stopped hirn, and because, later I on, he beat Sweetser at Piping Rock.1 To say nothing of beating Tolley at the National. Neither Francis Ouimet norj Btb Gardner played any great amount of tournament golf. mlmet beat George Rotan for the Texas championship, cham-pionship, played brilliantly in the international in-ternational matches and then crushed Colin Aylmor at Brookllne Bob Gardner stopped W. B. Torrance Tor-rance In the international tests, led the field the first day at Brookllne and was finally halted after playing fino golf by ono of Bobby Jones's best rounds. Rudy Knepper. while beaten in tho In ei ollegiate hamplonship. Mrhere Bollock Boyd reached ihe top, won the trans-Mississippi by stopping Von Elm, and then at Brookllne he rose to his greatest heights by beating Torrance. 1 "ulrnet. and Tolley In succession, falling fall-ing only before "Chick" Evans with Evans at his best. Outside of the-" leading seven there were few others who were able to make .my consistent showing wh n It came to competitions of a national character. Such good golfers as Hur-rison Hur-rison Johnston. Max Marston and William Wil-liam C Fownss, Jr.. were not up to their i'iji play. Frank Qodchaux and George South helped Bobby Jones to bring the South forward by flrst-clas flrst-clas golf, but they were not able to win any tournaments that were national na-tional in seopo. You hear of the Immense Im-mense number of fine golfers coming forward, but at tho end of the year, when the complete tabulation Is made, the same old list seems to have charge of the field. Sweetser was the sole newcomer on this occasion. In other words, there are seven amateur stars who stand well forward, but there are not as many as ten. |