After an absence of twenty-five years, the Southern Golf Association championship returned to Texas, play being con ducted over the course of the Lakewood Country Club, Dallas, in June of 1953, drawing a field of 141 qualifiers, and deadpan little Joe Conrad, a native-born Texan from San Antonio, de throned the defending champion, Gay Brewer, Jr., of Lexington, Ky., 6 and 4 in the final round, for the forty-seventh annual title.

Freckle-faced little Joe, who resembles the Great Hogan in both stature and stroking ability, and freshly, graduated from North Texas State at Denton where he was a top member of the NCAA links championship team for three years, shot subpar golf with relentless, yet methodical fury, and joined three other Texans who boast ownership to this coveted old golf champion ship, the others being Charles L. Dexter, who won in 1915, Jack Munger in 1936, Dale Morey in 1950, all three being from Dallas.

The Southern Amateur was Conrad's fourth tournament title of the season and his second since he was reinstated by the United States Golf Association following a brief suspension for violation of its professional code of ethics. Conrad previously had scored low amateur in the Texas Open at San Antonio, won the Fort Worth Recreation meet, and then captured amateur honors in the Colonial National Invitation at Fort Worth after a horrendous first round 84.

Conrad convinced his large following in this Southern Amateur, which was to be followed a short time later by a likewise spectacular triumph in the Trans-Mississippi, that his magnificent domination of the amateur picture was no fluke.

Conrad's march to the throne room was no easy, roses-strewn path of comfort. He had to overcome terrific competition, which included in its midst the powerful Georgian, Tommy Barnes of Atlanta, who saw victory slip through his fingers in the face of a spirit-crushing last-ditch rally.

Perhaps, as it should be, Texas squads placed first and second in the competition for the Bobby Jones Trophy emblematic of the Southern States Four-Ball Championship, to succeed Ten nessee. The winning team posted a 576 card for the four rounds of 36-hole qualifying, to better by nine strokes the second best group. Members of the first team were: Don Cherry, Wichita Falls, 140; Ed Hopkins of Abilene, 146; Ernie Vossler of Fort Worth, 143, and Jack Selby of Dallas, 147. Second were Don Schumacher of Dallas, 144; Spec Goldman, Dallas, 146; John Olver, Dallas, 146, and Herb Durham, Dallas, 149.

Cherry, the baldish crooner off Broadway via West Texas' sparse plains, and beefy Dick Collard, Jr., the New Orleans automobile tycoon, were the tournament co-medalists with 36- hole totals of 140. Cherry carded 71-69, while Collard fashioned his with two rounds of 70. They declined to stage a shoot-off for the medal.

Cherry advanced to the semifinals in the long match play grind, while Collard, after disposing of Durham in the first round, became a victim of young Don Addington of SMU fame and Dallas, in the second round. Cherry bowed out at the hands of the pugnosed defending champion, Brewer, 4 and 3, in the 36- hole semi-finals.

Conrad played his best pre-finals match against Barnes, a performer calculated to be a strong contender to add a third Southern title to go with his 1947 and 1949 titles.

Conrad, playing Barnes in the third round, put on one of the most dazzling exhibitions of the tournament to beat the lanky Georgian. Going into the fifteenth hole two-down, Conrad ex ploded three birdies in a row with mountainous putts to get even, then captured the final hole with a par. On the fifteenth, Conrad sank a 45-foot putt, then a 30-footer on the sixteenth, and a rather insignificant 8-footer on the 17th.

Brewer's semifinal match with Cherry was one of those routine performances, with the Kentucky lad emerging with a 4 and 3 victory, while Conrad was disposing of Carl Vandervoort, Jr., Fort Worth dairyman, with precision for a 9 and 7 margin.

Brewer, whose putting and short iron game was flawless in pre- finals play, lost his touch in the titular grind. He sank only one good putt, a 20-footer on the sixteenth of the morning round for a half, and got a nice 15-footer on the 13th for a birdie win in the afternoon round. His putter was useless except for those two widely separated occasions.

Conrad, with but two mistakes on the first round, turned in at lunch with a 2-up advantage. He missed the green at the fourth and seventh to lose those two holes but a two-under-par 70 against Brewer's 72 gave Conrad his margin at the halfway
point.

Conrad quickly forged into a 4-up lead in the afternoon round with wins at the second and third. Brewer broke a 15-hole winless span at the fourth with a birdie that had extended from the seventh hole of the morning round.

By the time they reached the tenth tee, Conrad was riding a 5- up lead. They halved the next two, then Conrad went 6-up with a win at the twelfth as Brewer missed a short putt.

Brewer sank his 15-footer on the 13th for a win, reducing Conrad's lead to 5-up, but conceded the 14th after missing his par putt from about six feet. That gave Conrad victory with a 6- up lead with f our to play.

Conrad flew that night to Pittsburgh to play in the National Open Golf Tournament.

A lot of credit is due Mr. A. Pollard Simons and his various local committees, and to Acting President Bill McWane, Mitt Jeffords, Polly Boyd, Fred Tilson and, as a matter of fact, all the directors and associate directors who helped make this one of the finest and best tournaments ever held.

Match Play Results: