Sport: Pretty Putter

As any old pro knows, it is accuracy on approaches and around the greens that saves strokes and wins tournaments. In women’s golf, one of the best short games belongs to 20-year-old Anne Quast of Marysville. Wash., a pretty, dark-eyed Stanford University coed. Last week at the 58th U.S. Amateur championship in Darien, Conn., personable Anne used string-straight approaches and deadeye putts to whip the field.

Anne has a refreshing approach to golf. She says she took it up because no one in her family played even though her parents owned a course in Marysville, and “I thought golf-course owners should have at least one golfer in the family.” Off the course, she keeps up a constant line of chatter, whether her game is going well (“Gee, this is all a crazy dream. I can’t believe it”) or poorly (“Bogey, bogey, bogey. Inexcusable. What a bonehead I am”).

After beating Defending Champion JoAnne Gunderson in the semifinals. Anne teed off in the finals against Barbara Romack Porter of Sacramento, the 1954 champ. Anne was tired (“I couldn’t sleep last night”) but philosophical (“I’d give anything to win the tournament, but I don’t intend to spend my life trying to win it”). At the start, her swing looked flat, and Mrs. Porter had a three-up lead at the 18-hole lunch break, still led two-up after 26 holes. But she three-putted the 27th and Anne got her short game going better than ever. She birdied three of the next four holes (one with a brilliant 25-ft. putt) to take the lead. At the 34th hole, Anne cautiously surveyed a difficult uphill nine-footer, calmly dropped it for still another birdie to win the title in a great finish. 3 and 2. Said the new champ: “This is a dream I’ve had since I was 14.”