Harvie Ward: San Francisco's Adopted Amateur Great
E. Harvie Ward Jr. (1925–2004) came from Tarboro, North Carolina, but the golfer belongs to San Francisco. Selling cars for Eddie Lowery — the ten-year-old caddie of 1913 U.S. Open legend, by then a wealthy San Francisco auto dealer — Ward became the best amateur in the world while holding down a day job on Van Ness Avenue (Wikipedia, PineStraw).
The best amateur in the world
Ward won the 1952 British Amateur, then the U.S. Amateur back-to-back: 1955, by a crushing 9&8 over Bill Hyndman, and 1956, 5&4 over Chuck Kocsis (Wikipedia). He played on three Walker Cup teams. In January 1956 he and Ken Venturi — fellow Lowery employee — took on Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson at Cypress Point in the four-ball later immortalized in Mark Frost's The Match; the pros escaped 1-up.
That same year came the City final: reigning U.S. Amateur champion Ward against Venturi at Harding Park, an estimated 10,000 San Franciscans watching a municipal championship (PGA Tour). Venturi won 5&4, but the occasion — two of the best players alive, both amateurs, both from the same car dealership — marks the peak of San Francisco's golf golden age.
The ruling
In 1957 it fell apart. California tax investigators found that Lowery — then a member of the USGA's own Executive Committee — had deducted Ward's tournament expenses on his business taxes. Ward hadn't known and was found not personally at fault, but the USGA revoked his amateur status for a year anyway (Wikipedia). Reinstated in 1958, he was never the same player; by most accounts his life took years to recover (PineStraw). He remains, as the North Carolina writers put it, "the last amateur" — the final act of an era when the world's best golfer might be the fellow who sold you a Lincoln.
