THE 1912 WESTERN AMATEUR GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP 
Remarkable effort by Denver Country Club Members saves tournament from disaster.
The American Golfer August 1912

However, the Denver members did remarkable work under the existing conditions and the course was as near fit for play as could be expected. The accident to the course was as lamentable as it was unforeseen. The members of the Denver club had been planning for years to take care of this tournament and had things in excellent condition until the flood came the night before the date of starting. The greens had been given every possible attention and nursed carefully all season and were fine, but it took a very short time for the water to undo months of hard work. 

However, the hospitality of the club was not impaired and aside from some trouble with the course, the golfers who made the long trip west expressed themselves as very well pleased. The Denver members demonstrated their ability as entertainers and they took good care of their visitors all the time they were there. Possibly it was the treatment they got the first two days that led the visiting golfers to refuse an invitation to go on to the Pacific coast and play the tournament there, the offer having been made by Mr. Vincent Whitney of San Francisco on behalf of the Del Monte club, who accompanied his invitation with an offer to pay all expenses of the trip. The offer of the course of the Colorado Springs Golf Club also was declined because of the newness of the course, which made it no better than the nine holes used at the Denver Country Club. The damage to the Denver club was estimated at $20,000, and portions of the course, it is said, never can be reclaimed 

The main effect of the flood was to reduce the qualifying round from thirty-six to eighteen holes, and the time of playing it, from a day and a half to one day. It also had the effect of reducing the original field by about thirty. The second round, which usually was played at thirty-six holes, was reduced to eighteen, in order that it and the first round might be disposed of on Wednesday, thereby leaving three days for the last three rounds that they might each consist of thirty-six holes.

Charles Evans, Jr., of the Edgewater Golf Club, won the Western amateur championship at the Denver Country Club by defeating Warren K. Wood of Homewood Country Club, in one of the hardest final matches ever played for this title. With the exception of the first nine holes of the morning play, neither player at any time had a lead which could be considered safe in any way, and it was not until the last putt was holed on the last green that the winner was determined. It was the winning of the seventeenth hole of the afternoon play and the subsequent halving of the eighteenth that gave Mr. Evans the match. Over 500 enthusiasts trailed the players around the course (in absolutely dismal conditions), and the match was pronounced by those who had seen many Western championships, to be "the best match ever played for the title."

Chick Evans