I get kinda choked up when I read the descriptions of the great amateur golfers of the '30's, '40's and '50's. It was a different time - in golf and in America.
I know, I know - it was different, maybe racially and gender exclusionary and with class snobbery. Amateur golfers were primarily rich, white men - with the ability and means to play golf as much as they wanted.
But I don't want to debate the political or social issues of that era. It was a simpler time with wonderful, colorful figures. Maybe it wasn't better or worse - just different.
I just want to remember the stories of golf in those times told by my father. He was an amateur golfer from Iowa, one of the top players in the state. Iowa may not be one of the most renowned golf states, but it was a wonderful place and a wonderful time to be a kid. My dad might have been an even better golfer if it weren't for the 3+ years he spent in the South Pacific in the early '40's, but he never discussed that much.
He won several state tournaments, after having won what was then the Big 10 championship while at the University of Iowa. He played many US National Amateurs (16, I believe) and two US Opens (his first as a teenager in the '30's). He was friends through golf with the major amateur names of the time - Coe, Patton, Ward, Campbell, Stranahan. He probably never reached their level, his best US Am being the round of 16 in Detroit in 1954, when Palmer won the amateur. That was back when the round of 8 got invited to the Masters. He lived a life involved in golf with a scratch handicap for 35+ years. He was not especially wealthy, except in terms of golf experiences. But he had stories of his times in golf, many of which involved him losing to one of them, or usually some lesser player, through some bad break. To my young mind, those top amateurs were as important to golf as were Hogan, Snead and Nelson.
I never reached my father's level of play. After High School and College team golf, I ventured off in different directions. But he gave me a life-long love of the history and traditions of the game that sticks with me - especially when something brings back stories and memories of those glory days of amateur golf and those noteworthy amateurs.