Age and experience paid big dividends in the .43rd annual Southern Amateur golf championship held June 14-19 over the beautiful and well-groomed Biltmore Forest Country Club course at Asheville, N. C.

Tommy Barnes, of Atlanta , a veteran at 33, became the Southern champion for the second time when he defeated another experienced campaigner, Al Neal, of Marion, N. C., 7 and 6 in the finals. Barnes won the 1947 event at Louisville, Ky.

The ratio of youngsters and veterans qualifying in the championship division of 32 was about 50-50. After the first round the only surviving youngsters were William Winkenwerder, Asheville; Jack Key, Jr., and Billy Key, the talented brothers of Columbus, Ga., Buddy DeBardeleben, Birmingham, Ala., and Tom Martin, Jr., of Mobile, Ala. Al Besselink, Southern Intercollegiate champion from Miami, who is on the borderline age of 25, reached the second round with a 1-up victory over Jack Bandy, of Dalton, Ga.

Bv the time the quarterfinals were reached only one younster, Billy Key, was a survivor. Next youngest was Billy Joe Patton, 27, of Morganton, N. C., who had captured the medal with a 69-69-138, just a stroke back of the tournament record of 137 set by Charlie Harper at Louisville, Ky., in 1947. Patton also had set himself up as a tournament favorite by shooting eight threes to eliminate the highly favored Harvie Ward, Jr., 3 and 2, in the quarterfinals.

In the semifinals it was Patton against the 33-year-old Tommy Barnes and for the first time in many years Barnes found himself the underdog in the betting, if any. The other semifinals match involved two real veterans, Morton Bright, the imperturbable Atlanta tavern keeper against Albert Neal, portly sox manufacturer from Marion, N. C.

Barnes' plav on the first hole convinced young Patton he was meeting a golfer of much sterner mold than the youngsters he had conquered in the first two rounds. Barnes hit a good second which fell a foot short into the traversing ditch. The expert shot he played from a difficult lie for a half in par fours had a telling effect. Patton missed both his drive and his second on the next hole to give Barnes a lead he never relinquished.

Barnes' final foe turned out to be Neal when the Marion

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