Bobby Jones (1902-1971) was an American golfer who not only was one of the most influential figures in the history of golf1 but also one of my golf idols growing up as a boy in Connecticut. My dad loved to play golf and he bought a set of Spalding Bobby Jones Autograph woods in the late 1930’s. These were the first golf woods that I used when I started playing golf when I was 10 years old.
The Bobby Jones woods that my father bought had steel shafts, leather grips, and the heads were made of wood. On the lower back side of the woods was a lead weight. The bottom of the clubs had a steel plate with five screws and the label SPALDING AUTOGRAPH AP40.
One day the lead weight fell out of the lower back side of the driver leaving a gap in the club. I told my dad what had happened and asked him if he could help fix the problem. Check out the story about what my dad did on page xii-xiii in my book Golf Ball Cover Story.2
In high school I started using a new set of clubs and played on the golf team. I still have these Bobby Jones woods and I keep them in my golf memorabilia collection.
Bobby Jones was the most successful amateur golfer ever to compete at a national and international level.1 He is most famous for his unique ‘Grand Slam’ in which he won all four major championships in the same calendar year (1930), winning The Amateur Championship (May 31), The Open Championship (June 20), the U.S. Open (July 12), and the U.S. Amateur (September 27). This is often called the pre-Masters Grand Slam because it was before the Masters Tournament which began in 1934.
Jones never played in the PGA Championship because he was an amateur. In September 1930 Jones turned professional because he intended to make money from instructional films and books. According to USGA rules, only professionals were allowed to make money from golf in any form.
I have a Callaway golf ball in my collection with Bobby Jones’ name. This ball has 432 dimples and appears on the 1990-93 USGA conforming golf ball list.
Bobby Jones was a lawyer by profession and he founded and helped design the Augusta National Golf Club and co-founded the Masters Tournament. Jones played in 31 major tournaments, wining 13 and placing in the top ten finishers 27 times.
Bobby won the US Open in 1923, 1926, 1929, and 1930. He won The Open Campionship in 1926, 1927, and 1930, the US Amateur in 1924, 1925, 1927, 1928, and 1930, and the British Amateur in 1930.
He so dominated his era that from 1923-1930 his two primary rivals Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen, never won a US Open or British Open that he entered.4
Jones co-designed the Augusta National golf course with Alister MacKenzie; the course opened in early 1933. He founded the Masters Tournament which was first played at Augusta in March 1934.1
Jones married Mary Rice Malone in 1924. They had three children: Clara Malone, Robert Tyre III and Mary Ellen. In 1948 Bobby was diagnosed with syringomyelia, a neuromuscular wasting disease.5 He died in Atlanta on December 18, 1971.
References
- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bobby_Jones_(golfer)&oldid=1148673524
- Golf Ball Cover Story, What Every Golfer Should Know, James J. Harrison, PhD, Waterside Press, 2018.
- See USGA Conforming Lists in the Supplemental Information Section of my website1.
- The Greatest of Them All, The Legend of Bobby Jones, by Martin Davis, The American Golfer, Inc., 1996, page 22.
- The Golf Book, The Greatest Golfers, Bobby Jones, Penguin Random Hoise LLC, Sept. 2021, page 112.