Backgrounds Of Some Amateurs To Watch

Billy Joe Patton, 32, lumber salesman from Morganton, N.C., is a long hitter who frequently visits the woods off the tees. Top amateur in 1954 Masters and Open, Patton's insouciant banter and gambling tactics make him a great gallery favorite.

Harvie Ward Jr., 28, is a native of Tarboro, N.C. who now sells autos in San Francisco for a company headed by Eddie Lowery, Francis Ouimet's caddy in the 1913 Open. A superb putter blessed with a light-hearted disposition, Ward won the British Amateur in 1952.

Rex Baxter Jr., 18, a sophomore at the University of Houston, comes from Amarillo, Texas, where his father is the manager of the Chamber of Commerce. A mannerly, intelligent young man—his four-year average in high school was 91.22—Baxter won the National Juniors in 1953, the Laredo Open this year.

Lt. Joe Conrad, 24, currently is Personnel Services Officer at Gary Air Base in San Marcos, Texas, spends his spare hours practicing golf and his weekends with his parents in San Antonio. A cool competitor, he took the Southern Amateur in 1953 and '54.

Dale Morey, 33, is Midwest sales manager for Sandpaper, Inc., lives in Indianapolis when not on the road. Runner-up to Gene Littler in the 1953 Amateur, Morey, a former basketball star at L.S.U., originally took up golf in order to strengthen his legs for basketball.

Bill Campbell, 31, an insurance broker from Huntington, W.Va., is a handsome, six-foot-four bachelor who captained the golf team at Princeton and served one term (1948-50) in the state legislature. A finalist this year in the British Amateur, he plays his informal rounds in green-blue Campbell-tartan shorts.

Charles Coe, 30, is in the oil business and works out of Ardmore, Okla., his home town. A fine swinger, especially for a person of his lanky build, Coe has piled up an impressive record since breaking through in the 1949 Amateur at Rochester.

Charles ("Chick") Evans, 64, vice-president of a Chicago dairy company, lives only two blocks from the Edgewater Golf Club where he started to caddy fifty-five years ago. In 1916 Evans won both the Open and the Amateur champions.