Dick Crawford, 20-year old shotmaker from El Dorado, Ark., added the Southern Amateur championship to an earlier NCAA links title by defeating co-medalist David Boyd of Jacksonville, Fla., 7 and 6 in the 36-hole finals over the Jackson Country Club course.

Crawford's victory, earned with a even-par performance in the finals, climaxed the week-long Southern Amateur that was being held in Mississippi for the first time in a long and colorful 53-year history and the entire tournament was staged on the JCC links that had been made considerably tougher for the greatest amateur event ever staged in the Magnolia State.

The new champion, making his first appearance in the event but already planning on defending his title in the 1960 tournament to be held at the Dunes Golf and Beach Club, Myrtle Beach, in June, had just the game with booming and well-placed drives, extreme accuracy with his irons and self confidence both on the greens and in all phases of his game. Seldom missing the greens or fairways, Crawford was absolutely without nerves for his few trouble shots and the outcome in the 36-hole finals was never in serious doubt.

A field of 190 golfers opened play in the 36-hole qualifying rounds and only 64 were destined to make the championship division. Dewitt Walcott of Greenville (6870), Boyd (70-68) and Sammy Love, Jr., of Shreveport had shared co-medalist honors while it took a score of 154 or better to make the select field.

Walcott, who had failed to qualify in the 1958 tourney at Birmingham, also helped the host state, Mississippi, win the Bobby Jones Four-Ball Award-going to the state with the lowest four-man total in the qualifying rounds.

Walcott's 138 (68-70) combined with Maynard Craft's 140 (68- 72), Spec Wilson's 141 (71-70) and Walter Loves 144 (73-71) to give Mississippi that coveted award with a four-man total of 563, edging runner-up Florida by four strokes. The Sunshine State contingent had featured Boyd (70-68), Dr. John McKey (70-72), Fritz Leffingwell, Jr., of Miami Shores (70-73) and Paul Tarnow, Jr., of Tampa (69-75).

Two Mississippians tied for the No. Four spot on the team, Love of Laurel and Walter Johnson of Jackson, host club chairman representing the JCC, with Johnson recording a 71-73 in qualifying. In the special play-off, Love won on the first extra- hole.

In the 36-hole, medal play event to determine the Southern Seniors champion, Gardner Dickinson, Sr. of Panama City fired a 76-74-150 to win both the over-all title as well as the trophy for the 50-59 age bracket while Tom Walsh of Greenville, over-all champion for the past three years, had a 77-79-156 to finish second to Dickinson but win in the 60-64 bracket.

Second flight honors were taken by David Lawrence of New Orleans via a 4 to 2 victory over David Gammill of Jackson in the 18-hole finals.

Although upsets and surprises had their place in the sun during the four days of match play as the field was cut from 64 to the new champion, perhaps two of the biggest came on opening day when Arkansas State king Tom Raney defeated Wilson 7 and 6 while Roy Capehart of Pass Christian scored a 1-up victory over Frank Strafaci of Miami, a name well-known in golfing circles and a former runner-up for National Amateur honors.

Winning to move into the semi-finals were Crawford, a champion who eats and writes lefthanded but plays all sports righthanded--and these included baseball, basketball and football back in El Dorado before he concentrated on golf with a links scholarship at the University of Houston, David Rheams of New Orleans, Boyd and Dudley Wysong of McKinney, Texas, a lad who earlier in the tournament toured the JCC course in a 32- 34-66 for a new course record.

Crawford scored a rather easy 6 and 5 victory over Rheams in the upper-bracket semi-finals while Boyd, two down at one point, battled back to defeat the tough Wysong 2 and 1 to earn his berth.

In the finals, Crawford won No. One with a par and was never headed enroute to the championship as he led three-up after nine and took that same three-up lead into the afternoon round. Again he got hot on the front, increasing his margin to five-up with only nine left and a birdie win at No. 11 and a par win at No. 12 decided the issue over his younger foe.

Boyd, just 18, will attend the University of Georgia on a golf scholarship this September - although he was talented enough as a quarterback to be offered a grid scholarship by the same University. And, with Crawford to be a junior at Houston, in a couple of years there could be a replay of the 1959 Southern Amateur for the NCAA title. Both boys are that good and proved it, beyond a doubt, in the 1959 tournament staged in Jackson.

Match Play Results: