Bobby Jones

1902-1971

American golfer

Although he retired from competitive golf in 1930, at age twenty-eight, Bobby Jones is widely regarded as the greatest golfer of all time. While earning three college degrees Jones played golf as an amateur, winning thirteen of the twenty-one national championships he entered in the United States and Great Britain between 1923 and 1930. In 1930 he achieved the golfing "Grand Slam" by winning the U.S. Amateur, U.S. Open, British Amateur, and British Open Championships in the same year. He surprised the world by retiring from competition soon afterward. In retirement he wrote books and articles on golf and made a series of instructional films, while practicing law. In 1931 he helped to design and build the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. The club's tournament soon came to be known as the Masters Tournament. The Masters is one of four tournaments known as the modern Grand Slam, along with the U.S. Open, the British Open, and the American Professional Golfers Association (PGA) Championship. Jones died in 1971 after suffering for twenty-three years with a rare central nervous system disease, syringomyelia. He received numerous awards and honors, including induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974.

Child Prodigy

Robert Tyre "Bobby" Jones, Jr., named for his grandfather, was born March 17, 1902, in the Grant Park neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia. He was the second son of Robert Purmedus Jones, an attorney who had played baseball at the University of Georgia, and Clara Merrick Thomas Jones. At age five, he and a friend laid out a small golf course in the front yard, and Jones played with a set of clubs cut down to fit his size. Soon afterward, the family moved to the suburb of East Lake, where they lived next to the East Lake golf course. There, young Jones watched the head professional golfer, Stewart Maiden, and learned to play by imitating his swing. These were the only "lessons" Jones ever had. Maiden coached him informally as the talented young golfer began to win local tournaments.

Jones played in his first U.S. Open Championship in 1920, at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, where he

tied for eighth place. In 1921 he played his first British Amateur at Hoylake, England, where he was eliminated after the fourth round. From there he entered the British Open on the Old Course at St. Andrew's, Scotland, considered the birthplace of golf, but he withdrew in frustration after the eleventh hole after missing a putt.

Winning Streak

Jones did not win a national contest until 1923. At age twenty-one, he won the U.S. Open Championship on Long Island, New York, beating both amateurs and professionals. According to Newsweek, he later recalled moving through the congratulatory crowd and thinking, "I've won a championship. At last, I've won one." But this tournament was only the beginning of a successful period when Jones would win a total of thirteen major championships over the next seven years. By 1926 he became the first person to win both the U.S. and British Opens in the same year. On returning home he was treated to a ticker-tape parade down Broadway in New York City, the first of several he would receive. He won the U.S. Amateur in 1924, 1925, 1927, 1928, and 1930. He again won the U.S. Open in 1929 and 1930, disqualifying himself on a one-stroke technicality in 1925, adding to his reputation as a gentleman and sportsman. He also won the British Open in 1926, 1927, and 1930 and the British Amateur in 1930.

Winning all four major championships in 1930 gave him the golfing Grand Slam, an accomplishment that Jones was the first to achieve. Jones also became the first man in history to break par in the U.S. Open, winning with a score of 287, one under par.

Jones and his two major rivals during the 1920s, Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen, were known as the Three Musketeers because they took all the major titles in the United States and Great Britain. Jones also led his team to victory five times in the Walker Cup competition, inaugurated in 1921 as a tournament between amateur teams from the United States and Great Britain.

Even though golfing great Jack Nicklaus eventually broke Jones's record of thirteen major championships, no one has accomplished what Jones did within such a short period of time. In 1950 an Associated Press poll found Jones's Grand Slam to be "the Supreme Athletic Achievement of the Century."

Personal Style

Jones was an average-size man, standing 5'8" tall and weighing about 165 pounds at the height of his golfing career. He had a clean-cut, boyish manner that made him the favorite of golfing fans. He did not like to practice golf and played on average about eighty rounds a year.

Obviously gifted, Jones had superb timing and a long, powerful stroke. He wasted no time on the golf course and averaged about three seconds to address and strike the ball. He played with a set of clubs that were mismatched but chosen for their perfect feel. Jones named his favorite putter Calamity Jane.

Although his record-breaking scores indicated he could be a successful pro golfer, he remained an amateur, probably believing that his nervous temperament made him ill-suited to turning professional. In his youth, Jones had a fiery temper and was known to throw golf clubs when he was dissatisfied with a shot. It is said that he became extremely stressed before and during a competition, sometimes to the point of vomiting, and lost as much as eighteen pounds during a tournament.

Once Jones learned to control his temper, he always appeared calm and focused on the golf course. Considerate of opponents and spectators, he earned a reputation for being the consummate gentleman. He was also a very private person and extremely modest.

Contribution to the Game

During the years that Bobby Jones played amateur golf, the sport experienced a phenomenal increase in popularity. The number of weekend golfers doubled, and new golf courses were constructed throughout the United States. The middle class began to enjoy golf as spectators, a position once reserved for the wealthy.

After giving up his amateur status and retiring from competitive golf in 1930, at age twenty-eight, Jones was in a position to earn money from his golfing career. He made a series of instructional films in which he taught actors how to play golf. He also designed the first matched set of iron golf clubs for Spalding and Company, in 1932. Jones had already published his first book on the subject, Down the Fairway in 1927. From 1939 to 1969 he published four more books on playing golf.

Augusta National Golf Club and Final Years

In 1931 Jones formed a partnership with Wall Street broker Clifford Roberts and announced plans to build the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. With the help of architect Alister Mackenzie, Jones fulfilled his dream of designing a golf course. It opened in 1933, and Roberts suggested that Augusta host its own major tournament. He wanted to call it the Masters Tournament, but Jones thought the name too lofty. Instead, he called it the Augusta National Invitation Tournament. As the Augusta Invitation grew in reputation, by 1938 Jones agreed that it should be called the Masters. Jones played in the tournament until 1949, when his health had deteriorated to the point that he could no longer play. However, he continued to preside over the tournament, finally attending with the help of crutches and braces and enduring intense pain.

After two back surgeries, it was discovered in 1956 that Jones suffered from the rare central nervous system disease syringomyelia. His condition worsened year by year until he was confined to a wheelchair and could not even turn the pages of a book. In 1958, Jones received his greatest honor when the people of St. Andrew's, Scotland, awarded him the Freedom of the City and the Royal Burgh of St. Andrew's awards in what has been called the most moving ceremony in the history of golf. Jones died of an aneurysm on December 18, 1971, at age 69. At his request, a small, private funeral was held.

Jones's Legacy

Golf historians and experts agree that Jones's sportsmanship is his greatest legacy. Winning the Masters Tournament has also become the most prestigious award in golf, and Jones's books and films have been reprinted and are still used as guides to playing the game. Although he rejected the idea of any monument being made to him—considering the Augusta Golf Club his memorial—a statue of Jones created after his death graced the lobby of a major hotel in Augusta until 2002, when it was moved to the Augusta Golf and Gardens as part of a centennial celebration of his birth. The statue is now the first to greet visitors to the gardens and joins sculptures of Arnold Palmer , Jack Nicklaus, Byron Nelson, Raymond Floyd, and Ben Hogan .

SELECTED WRITINGS BY JONES:

(With O. B. Keeler) Down the Fairway: The Golf Life and Play of Robert T. Jones, Jr., Minton, Balch & Company, 1927.

Chronology

(With Harold E. Lowe) Group Instruction in Golf: A Handbook for Schools and Colleges, American Sports Pub. Co., 1939.

Golf Is My Game, Doubleday, 1960.

Bobby Jones on Golf, Doubleday, 1966. Reprint, Golf Digest/Tennis, Inc., 1986. Rev. ed., edited by Sidney L. Matthew, Sleeping Bear Press, 1997.

Awards and Accomplishments

Bobby Jones on the Basic Golf Swing, Doubleday, 1969.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Books

Jebsen, Harry. "Robert Tyre Jones, Jr." Dictionary of American Biography, Supplement 9: 1971-1975. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1994.

Rice, Grantland, from the writings of O. B. Keeler. The Bobby Jones Story. Atlanta: Tupper & Love, 1953.

St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. "Bobby Jones." five volumes. Detroit: St. James Press, 2000.

Periodicals

"Golfer of the Golden Era." Newsweek (December 27, 1971): 48.

Other

American Decades CD-ROM. "Robert 'Bobby' Tyre Jones, Jr." Detroit: Gale Group, 1998.

Augusta Chronicle. "The Life of Bobby Jones." CNN/Sports Illustrated. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/ (October 21, 2002).

Boyette, John. Augusta Chronicle. "Golf's Gentleman." CNN/Sports Illustrated. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/ (October 21, 2002).

Boyette, John. Augusta Chronicle. "Golf World Pays Tribute to Legend." CNN/Sports Illustrated. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/ (October 21, 2002).

DISCovering Biography. "Bobby Jones." Detroit: Gale Group, 1997.

DISCovering U.S. History. "Golf in the 1920s." Detroit: Gale Group, 1997.

Golf Europe. "The Walker Cup." http://golfeurope.com/almanac/majors/walker_cup.htm (October 22, 2002).

Internet Movie Database. "Bobby Jones." http://us.imdb.com/ (October 24, 2002).

Smith, Jason. Augusta Chronicle. "Jones Statue Joins Golf Gardens." CNN/Sports Illustrated. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/ (October 21, 2002).

Sketch by Ann H. Shurgin

Bobby Jones see Jones, Robert Tyre, Jr .