Youths at Games

Whatever its elders may say of it, nobody can deny that U. S. youth likes to play games and plays them in mass and well. Last week, before going home for their vacations, U. S. collegians and schoolboys met in Vermont, Connecticut and Pennsylvania to see who was the best at golf and tennis, whose names might headline sporting pages in the years to come.

At Manchester, Vt., over the picturesque Ekwanok Country Club course, campus golfers from 30 colleges teed up in the 41st annual tournament for the Intercollegiate Golf Championship. Among the 145 contestants were a Vanderbilt and Walter Hagen Jr. But the names of most of America's top-flight college golfers were unfamiliar to U. S. galleries.

In the first qualifying round--played to the tune of mountain-echoing thunderstorms--almost half the field shot 78 or better. After the second qualifying round (which determines the 64 low scorers who are to fight it out in match play), Georgetown's red-thatched Johnny Burke, who reached the third round of the U. S. Amateur last year, was out in front with a 36-hole total of 143. Johnny Burke is Irish, was born on St. Patrick's Day and is a twin. But last week, in the shadow of the Green Mountains, the luck of the Irish deserted him. While the gallery was still marveling at his 22 putts on 18 greens in the opening round, he was blasted out of the tournament in the second round of match play--by F. Dixon Brooke, a blond University of Virginia dark horse.

Fair-haired Brooke is an Alabamian, moves with the speed of Stepin Fetchit. To rival golfers last week he became known as the "Virginia Creeper." But, creeping or no, Virginia's Brooke, during six days of rain, swamped one adversary after another. After Burke, went Princeton's Arnold Zimmerman, Mississippi's Gary Middlecoff, Holy Cross's Eddie Foy.* In the 36-hole final, Brooke faced the toughest foe of all: bespectacled Harry Hoyt Haverstick of Swarthmore.

Haverstick, who has played in five U. S. Amateurs and two U. S. Opens, caused golfing eyes to pop at last year's Amateur when he shot 31 on the last nine holes of the opening round. In the Intercollegiate last week, he turned in 69 in the second medal round. After that he kept going like a house afire--until he met Brooke in the final.

For the first 18 holes, during high wind and rain, Haverstick led the way. At lunch time he was 4 up on Brooke. When they returned for the second 18, Brooke began to creep up until he pulled even at the 27th. At the 29th, the Virginia Creeper was down again. At the 35th the match was all even once more; a 17-ft putt would put Brooke in front, with only one more hole to play. Looking heavenward in supplication, Brooke spied a rainbow arching over gloomy Mt. Equinox. "I've got a rainbow round my shoulder and I'm going to cook this putt," he drawled. To the astonishment of the gallery he did--and a few minutes later, the 20-year-old Cavalier was on the home green, intercollegiate champion of the U. S.

At Greenwich, Conn., U. S. schoolboys fought it out for the 29th Eastern Interscholastic Golf Championship. The show they put on over the soggy Greenwich Country Club links augured well for future intercollegiate tournaments. In the qualifying rounds, stocky, easygoing, Charles Davis of Lawrenceville took the medal with a creditable 36-hole total of 153. In the match play that followed, the gallery was treated to many a pull-devil-pull-baker struggle before long-swatting Bill Goldthorp of Peddie ousted Hill School's redheaded, hot-putting Mortimer Reed, 5 & 4 in the final.

At Haverford, Pa., spectators watching the Intercollegiate Tennis Championship last week did not have to be told who the topnotchers were. Most of them had long been familiar to tennis fans. Seeded No. 1 was 22-year-old Don McNeill of Kenyon College, who had twice defeated Germany's Baron Gottfried von Cramm, had won the U. S. indoor tennis championship two years ago, had trounced U. S. Champion Bobby Riggs in the final of the French hard-court championship at Paris last year, and last fortnight, at Chicago, had beaten Bobby Riggs and Frank Parker (top and second-ranking U. S. tennists) to win the National Clay Court championship.

Seeded No. 2 was 21-year-old Joe Hunt, Annapolis midshipman, U. S. doubles player (with Jack Kramer) in the Davis Cup Challenge Round against Australia last summer. Chief rivals to McNeill and Hunt were: Frank Guernsey of Rice Institute, intercollegiate champion the past two years (neither Hunt nor McNeill competed last year); Ted Schroeder of Southern California, national junior champion; Dave Freeman of Pomona College, national badminton champion; Seymour Greenberg of Northwestern, national public parks champion.

When the field narrowed down to the semi-finalists--after two days of postponement because of rain--no one in the Merion Cricket Club stands was surprised at the survivors: McNeill, Hunt, Guernsey and Bill Talbert, University of Cincinnati up-&-comer, who had ousted Ted Schroeder in the quarterfinals. Tennis tournaments usually run truer to form than golf tournaments. Last week's was no exception. In the semifinals, Hunt put out Guernsey, McNeill put out Talbert. And in the final, sharpshooting, canny McNeill, seeded No. 1, subdued Hunt in straight sets, 7-5, 6-1, 6-1. Trooping out of Haverford, tennis fans agreed that the new intercollegiate champion will soon be America's No. 1.

* No relation to the late great comedian.

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