[mike_malone]

 Jamie,

   A friend gave me a copy of Ken Venturi's autobiography ; he had it autographed by Venturi in Fla. As I read it I wanted to learn more about Harvie Ward. Venturi made him sound like " a pearl among the oysters". (Meanwhile ,Venturi came off as a jerk IN HIS OWN BOOK!!! )

  Thanks for that memorable story.

[Mike McGuire]

I would somehow manage to get Moe Norman in my top 10 .

two straight Canadian Amateur championships in 1955 and ‘56. He set 33 course records that included three 59s.

One of the best ball stikers of all time. One of the few guys  tour pros would stop to watch hit balls.  

[Jordan Wall]

I would somehow manage to get Moe Norman in my top 10 .

maybe for top 10 ball striking...[/color]

two straight Canadian Amateur championships in 1955 and ‘56. He set 33 course records that included three 59s.

doesnt compare to what Tiger and Bobby Jones did, plus some of the other great amatuers[/color]

One of the best ball stikers of all time. One of the few guys  tour pros would stop to watch hit balls.

Amazing ball striker if he can hit full long iron shots off the putting green at Augusta without making a mark...also pretty good if you can challenge Dave Pelz that you are a better ball striker then he is short gamer...ladies and gentleman, the best ball striker in the world...or at least the most accurate [/color]

[JohnV]

All good suggestions so far, but since nobody else has mentioned her, I've got to nominate Carol Semple Thompson.  She has played in over 100 USGA championships.  1 Amateur, 2 Mid-Ams and 4 Senior Ams won, plus numerous other trips to the finals.  

Also Anne Quast Sander 3 Amateurs and 4 Senior Ams.

Carl Kaufman won 3 US Public Links in a row in the late 1920s.

And of course, Joanne Gunderson Carner 5 Amateurs and a Junior.

[TEPaul]

JVB:

Glenn Spencer didn't want any women amateurs in this thread but if women were included Carole Semple Thompson would have to be on top in the modern era. In the earilier era I think Glenna Collett Vare topped them all with six US Amateurs and a lot more. For the greatest women amateur ever it sounds like the nod generally goes to Joyce Wethered.

[Lawrence Largent]

The thread would be better to state Career Amateurs. Danny Green has had a pretty nice amatteur career. He won the Mid Am and is the only player ever to lose in the finals of the Pub links, Mid am, and Amateur. Walker Cup player and one of the best Gamblers around.

Lawrence

[John Yerger]

WC Fownes (Oakmont)

1912 United States Amateur Champion
Semi-finalist in four US Amateurs
1922 United States Walker Cup Team Captain
1922, 1924 United States Walker Cup Team
1922 United States Walker Cup Team Captain
1910, 1912, 1913 & 1916 Pennsylvania Amateur Champion
1924 & 1928 Runner-up Pennsylvania Amateur


Maxwell Marston (Merion Cricket Club and Baltusrol)

1923 United States Amateur Champion
1933 Runner-up United States Amateur
1920 Semi-finalist United States Amateur
1922, 1923, 1924, 1934 United States Walker Cup Team
1921, 1922 & 1923 Pennsylvania Amateur Champion
1920 Runner-up Pennsylvania Amateur
1915 & 1919 New Jersey Amateur Champion

Charlie Coe
US Walker Cup Team 1949- 1953, 1959-1963
US Amateur Champion 1949 & 1958
1958 Runner-up US Amateur(lost to Nicklaus 1-down)
1951 Runner-up British Amateur
4-time Champion of the Trans_Mississippi Amateur when it was a major amateur event

Bill Campbell
9-time Member US Walker Cup team
1964 US Amateur Champion
1954 Runner-up British Amateur
1950, 1953 & 1957 North & South Amateur Champion
1949 & 1973 US Amateur Semi-finalist
1952 & 1954 Runner-up Canadian Amateur


Francis Ouimet
7-time member US Walker Cup team
1913 US OPen Champion
1914 & 1931 US Amateur Champion
1920 Runner-up US Amateur
1920 North & South Amateur Champion
1917 Western Amateur Champion
6-time Massachusetts Amateur Champion

Jesse Sweetser
6-time US Walker Cup team
 1922 US Amateur Champion
1923 Runner-up US Amateur
1920 US Intercollegiate Champion
1930 & 1925 Semi-finalist US Amateur
1926 British Amateur Champion
1922 & 1925 Metropolitan Amateur Champion

Chick Evans
Carol Semple Thompson
Frank Stranhan
Tiger Woods
Harvie Ward

WC Fownes achievements as a player have been forgotten and overshadowed because of Oakmont but he was a fixture in American golf for four decades.

[PCCraig]

Good call on Chick Evans, his on course record is great, not to forget his contributions to his caddy program after his playing days were over.

All of his trophies are at his old home course...Glen View Club in Golf, IL.

[Jeff_Mingay]

How about Canadian Marlene Stewart Streit?

From the World Golf Hall of Fame web site...

"The first thing about Marlene Stewart Streit’s resume that grabs one’s attention is the fact that she is the only golfer to have won the Australian, British, Canadian and United States womens’ amateur championships.

That accomplishment just begins to tell the story of how a teenager, who learned the game from a golf professional in Ontario, became the first Canadian inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

A year after taking up the game, Streit’s runner-up finish in the Ontario Junior Girls’ Championship would serve notice of her arrival. In 1951 she won the first two of her 21 provincial championships. Between then and 2003 Streit has won 30 national or international championships on three different continents with at least one championship each decade.

Streit won 11 Canadian Ladies Open Amateurs, nine Canadian Ladies Close Amateurs and four Canadian Ladies Senior Women’s Amateur tournaments. Additionally she has won four USGA events, including the 1956 U.S. Women’s Amateur.

Streit won 11 Canadian Ladies Open Amateurs, nine Canadian Ladies Close Amateurs and four Canadian Ladies Senior Women’s Amateur tournaments. Additionally she has won four USGA events, including the 1956 U.S. Women’s Amateur.

She was awarded the Officer of the Order of Canada, the country’s highest honor for lifetime achievement, in 1967. In 1999 she was ranked seventh among Female Amateur Golfers of the 20th Century and first among Canadian Female Golfers of the 20th Century

She claimed her third U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur in 2003, becoming the oldest person to ever triumph in that event."

Not bad, eh  

[SPDB]

John Yerger:

Under Charlie Coe, you forgot:

1961 Runner-up Masters

Jordan Wall:

Please abandon the Pat Mucci method of color replies to every point.

[Jimmy Muratt]

Sam,

Good call regarding Vinny Giles.  A stellar amateur career and a great gentleman.  Below are some of his career highlights:

1972 US Amateur Champion
1975 British Amateur Champion
Runner-up in US Am from 1967-69
4-time Walker Cup member (1969, '71, '73, '75... 8-2-5 record)
1993 Walker Cup Captain - victorious
1972 Masters - low Amateur
1973 US Open - low Amateur
US Senior Open - low Am in '93, '96, '97
7 time Virginia State Amateur Champion
3-time World Amateur Team Championship member ('68, '70, '72)
3 time State Open Champion
2 time Virginia Senior Amateur Champion
1973 Porter Cup and Eastern Amateur Champion

[Glenn Spencer]

Jimmy- Those really are some impressive stats from Mr. Giles, were those 4 straight runner-up finishes in the Amateur at stroke play or match or a combo, I can't remember when it reverted back.

Glenn

[Jimmy Muratt]

Glenn,

When Mr. Giles finished runner-up the 3 consecutive years from 1967-1969, the event was contested entirely in stroke-play.  He was also a semi-finalist in 1973 when the event was contested in match-play.  

Jimmy

[Jim Nugent]

Ken Venturi could be on a top ten list -- almost won the 1956 Masters, and did come in second, after holding a 4 stroke lead going into the final round.  To me that ranks up there with wins against strictly amateur competition.  

[Chris Kane]

From Australia Kevin Hartley would be right up there.

[James Bennett]

Chris Kane

what about Tony Gresham?

Both Tony and Kevin were of the old true amateur mould, who knows what they would have achieved today?

(Tony won at least one if not two open tournaments as an amateur in the late 70's and/or early 80's).

James Bennett

[Lawrence Largent]

Billy Joe Patton would be another great amateur that alot of people has forgotten about. I see him every year at the Mimosa Hills Invitational. I'm pretty sure he should have one the Masters one year and finished 2nd. Played on numorus Walker Cup teams also. Here are some of this accomplishments.


Billy Joe Patton's golf is an international affair. His golf swing has been witnessed on the Old Course of St. Andrews, in the Amen Corner of Augusta National, and all over the mountains of his homeland Carolinas. A member of the Walker Cup team an amazing six times, Patton was also on the Americas Cup team four times, and the World Amateur twice. Needless to say, Patton has been around the block a few times.

At only 32, Patton was the low amateur at both the Masters and the U.S. Open and already a member of his first Walker Cup team. This was after winning the Carolinas Golf Association Amateur Championship eight years earlier. Patton would again be the low amateur at the U.S. Open and the Masters in 1957 and 1958 respectively, as well as win two more CGA Amateur Championships.

From 1954 to 1969, Billy Joe Patton spent a lot of time crossing national borders. Along with his teammates, he won 12 international competitions, and on two Americas Cup teams and one Walker Cup team, he served as captain.

But the world was not Patton's only stage, he won three North and South Amateurs, three CGA Amateurs, two Southern Amateurs, two CGA Father/Son Amateurs with his son Chuck, two CGA Senior Amateurs, the North Carolina Amateur, and the CGA Senior Four-Ball.

Patton had a love of life and of golf. His excitement for the game was so noticed, the USGA Golf Journal once wrote of him, "Patton('s) enthusiasm for all things is such that he could probably make the Dewey Decimal System sound like an exciting way of life." Following a particularly tough hole that possibly cost him the Masters, he looked at the downcast gallery, all of whom were hoping for a Patton win, and said, "This is no funeral. Let's smile again."

After a lifetime of wins and contributions to golf, Patton was awarded the Bob Jones Trophy in 1982. One of the nominators of Patton wrote: "There are countless instances of Patton's exemplary approach to the game of golf. He played it as a sport and with an innate sportsmanship that few people in the last quarter century have come close to."

Billy Joe Patton was inducted into the Southern Golf Association Hall of Fame in 1975 because of his enthusiasm for the game of golf and for his contributions to the sport that took him the world over.

International Competition

1954 Americas Cup Team
1955 Walker Cup Team
1956 Americas Cup Team
1957 Walker Cup Team
1958 World Amateur Team
1958 Americas Cup Team (Captain)
1959 Walker Cup Team
1962 World Amateur Team
1963 Americas Cup Team (Captain)
1963 Walker Cup Team
1965 Walker Cup Team
1969 Walker Cup Team (Non-playing Captain)

National Competition

1954 Low Amateur - U.S. Open
1954 Low Amateur - The Masters
1954 North and South Amateur Champion
1957 Low Amateur - U.S. Open
1958 Low Amateur - The Masters
1961 Southern Amateur Champion
1962 North and South Amateur Champion
1963 North and South Amateur Champion
1965 Southern Amateur Champion
1982 Bob Jones Trophy

State Competition - Carolinas

1947 CGA Amateur Champion
1958 CGA Amateur Champion
1961 CGA Amateur Champion
1964 North Carolina Amateur Champion
1969 CGA Father/Son Champion (Chuck)
1972 CGA Father/Son Champion (Chuck)
1973 CGA Senior Four-Ball Champion
1979 CGA Senior Amateur Champion
1981 CGA Senior Amateur Champion
 


Lawrence

[ForkaB]

How about Peter McEvoy?

2 British Amateurs
5 Walker Cups (+2 as Captain)
5+ World Amateur Team Championships
1 World Amateur Individual Champion
5 Open appearances (incluing 2 top 25 finishes)
4 Masters appearances (last UK player to qualify for weekend--played with Jack Niclaus on Saturday, BTW.....)
Member of runner-up team in the GCA Ryder/Cup match at Painswick, May 2004

Hard to beat that record.

[JESII]

Am I unreasonable to feel that this should be limited to career amateurs?

[Lawrence Largent]

This should be all about career amateurs.

Lawrence

[Bob_Huntley]

Dick Chapman,

Won US, British, Canadian, French, North and South and a host of others. Played in 17 consecutive Masters, Walker Cupper.

Also invented the Chapman type of tourney, sometimes called the Pinehurst where he lived at the time.

Bob

[Jim Nugent]

This should be all about career amateurs.

Lawrence

The original post asked, " Who do you think are the best amateurs of all time?"

That does not seem to me to limit things to amateur careers only.

[Johnny_Browne]

I would add to the pot Joe Carr - a legend in Irish Golf - not sure of all his titles but he was held in awe by everyone who met him. He was one of those players in the Walter Hagen mould who feared no one - not sure of his Walker Cup record but he played in a lot of them.
Johnny Browne

[Tony_Muldoon]

Joe Carr
Irish open amateur 46, 50, 54, 56
Walker cup 1947 - 67 (non playing captain last time)
British Amateur 53, 58, 60
runner up Dunlop masters 59
semi finalist US am 61
Eisenhower trophy 66
Bob Jones award 67
and I'm getting rsi

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