He moved to
San Francisco, California, and championed the rising amateur careers of
Ken Venturi (1964
U.S. Open Champion),
Harvie Ward (1955 & 1956
U.S. Amateur Champion), and
Tony Lema (1964
British Open Champion), among others. Lowery played at San Francisco Golf Club in San Francisco. He became a multi-millionaire as an auto dealer in San Francisco. Lowery and
Bob Hope were friends and they both played in the 1951
British Amateur. He enjoyed sponsoring young amateur golfers, such as two of his employees: Venturi and Ward. In 1956 he arranged a match between these two amateurs and two golf pros,
Ben Hogan and
Byron Nelson, a friendly four-ball match at
Cypress Point Club. The amateurs played a strong game but the pros took the match, 1-up. Venturi told a newspaper years later, "It was the best golf I've ever seen." This match was chronicled in depth in
Mark Frost's 2007 book
The Match. Lowery also served on the executive committee of the
United States Golf Association. His sponsorship of Harvie Ward led to problems, because Lowery had claimed certain disallowable business expenses for tax write-offs. And Ward, who had trusted Lowery's USGA expertise, had his amateur status revoked in 1957, at a time when he had won the previous two consecutive U.S. Amateur titles. == Personal life ==