 He
played tournament golf for only fourteen years, yet Robert Tyre ("Bobby") Jones,
Jr., left a permanent mark on the game. Although an amateur, he concentrated on
the major tournaments and won an astounding thirteen of the twenty-seven events
he entered, culminating in the 1930 with the Grand Slam - the British Open, the
British Amateur, the U.S. Amateur, and the U.S. Open Championship. Jones retired
from competition after having achieved the goal he had set for himself and having
set a standard for all who followed him.
Perhaps most remarkable, Jones essentially was a part-time player. He picked up
his clubs only a few months a year, spending the rest of the time first as a student
(in engineering, literature, and law), then as a lawyer. Whatever his pursuits,
Jones was driven to be the best.
On the golf course, he brought his smooth, controlled, powerful swing into only
fifty-two events and won twenty-three of them . Indeed, his presence was such
that no matter how other players finished, their first question was, "What's Jones
doing?"
Jones also wrote books, both autobiographical and instructional (some with O.B.
Keeler, an Atlanta newspaperman and Jones' close friend), and after retiring he
made movies, wrote newspaper columns, and spread the gospel of golf over the radio.
He co-designed Augusta National (with Scottish architect Alister
MacKenzie), which incorporated all the components that Jones felt would make
a layout strategically perfect. In 1934, Jones invited some friends to play his
creation in a friendly tournament. Under the influence of club president Clifford
Roberts, Jones' intimate get-together became The Masters, golf's annual rite of
spring.
Jones played in his tournament (with moderate success) every year until 1947,
when his health began to fail. Over the year, even though his arms and legs became
paralyzed by a spinal disease, Jones continued to show up at Augusta, albeit in
a wheelchair.
Jones is a charter member of the PGA Hall of Fame (1940) and the World Golf Hall
of Fame (1974).
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