Sport: Little Willie

On the eve of the U. S. Amateur golf championship, played last week at Oakmont, outside Pittsburgh, most persistent arguments centred around: 1) Defending Champion Johnny Goodman and whether he could win the Amateur for the second year in a row; 2) Atlanta’s Charley Yates and whether he could add the U. S. title to the British Amateur title he won last spring; 3) Professional Tennist Ellsworth Vines, onetime U. S. amateur tennis champion, and whether he could reach the final — and thereby duplicate the feat of Mary K. Browne, tennis champion in 1912-13-14, who reached the final of the U. S. women’s golf championship in 1924.

After the first round of medal play over Oakmont’s tricky, rain-soaked course, one of the arguments was stilled. Ellsworth Vines got an 86, had no chance of being included among the 64 low scorers who qualified for the six rounds of match-play elimination. Tyro Vines would have promptly driven back to Pasadena (or perhaps on to the national tennis matches at Forest Hills) were it not for the fact that he had taken along a young Southern California tank-town actor named Pat Abbott to keep him company on his trans continental motor trip. Pat Abbott was still in the tournament.

After the first day of match play, in which favorite Charley Yates and four of his Walker Cup teammates were swept out of the tournament by dark horses, Spectator Vines was still hanging around. For Pat Abbott was the dark horse who had eliminated Walker Cupper Ray Billows, runner-up to Johnny Goodman in last year’s championship.

The second day Spectator Vines watched Defending Champion Johnny Goodman, the last of the Walker Cuppers, ousted by Connecticut socialite Dick Chapman, who took a nip of whiskey out of a Coca-Cola bottle after every hole, kept the gallery in suspense until he finally conquered his opponent, 2 & 1. The field of 162 had narrowed down to four —and still Spectator Vines could not leave Pittsburgh. Pat Abbott was one of the semifinalists, along with three other dark horses: 23-year-old Edwin Kingsley, a husky Utah ore sampler who had tasted his first sip of fame when he eliminated Charley Yates the first day; 27-year-old Dick Chapman, who had competed in five previous U. S. Amateurs but had never before reached the first round of match play; and 23-year-old Willie Turnesa, amateur baby brother of the six famed professional Turnesas.

After Abbott disposed of Chapman, and Turnesa eliminated Kingsley, Ellsworth Vines found himself basking in the fame of his traveling companion, who had theretofore been a comparative unknown in spite of the fact that he had won the National Public Links championship two years ago. The gallery of 3,000, who turned out for the final, made “Little Willie” the sentimental favorite. They all knew that he was the son of an Italian greenskeeper, that his six brothers had chipped in to put him through Holy Cross, insisted that he become a gentleman golfer and made him remain an amateur even alter he had dashed their hopes by blowing up in several previous tournaments. They knew too that Little Willie had persuaded his brothers to stay away from the tournament this year.

A little 130-pounder, whose game is patterned after that of his brother Joe, the seventh of the Turnesas did not let his gallery down. With the help of a sand wedge and a red-hot putter. Little Willie turned in the most extraordinary display of putting and blasting out of bunkers that had ever been seen in a U. S. Amateur. Three up at the end of nine holes, 5 up at the end of 18, the Turnesa baby kept crawling further in front at each hole, finally grabbed the big, silver cup and the title on the 29th green, 8 up and 7 to play. Around Papa Turnesa’s table in Elmsford, N. Y. there was great rejoicing.