Ned Sawyer

In this century’s first decade, “Ned” Sawyer was a golfing Alydar to Chandler Egan’s Affirmed. Sawyer was one of the top golfers in the country but he always seemed to run afoul of Egan, who usually beat him in the top tournaments. Still, Sawyer was not without his titles. As a member of the Chicago Golf Club he played for the Western GA team which took the 1904 Olympic gold medal. He also won the 1906 Western Amateur and the 1920 Metropolitan Amateur.

In the U.S. Amateur, Sawyer had an enviable record but could never quite pull off the victory. He lost in the finals in 1905 to Egan, lost in the quarter-finals in 1907, lost again to Egan in the 1909 quarter-finals, and later would lose to the likes of Chick Evans, Bob Gardner, and Jess Sweetser. Ned Sawyer also finished second once in the Western Amateur, in 1904 to Chandler Egan. Sawyer later moved to New York where he played out of the Siwanoy Country Club and worked for a large manufacturing company.