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Golf's Greatest Years - Bobby Jones
The Grand Slam in 1930
Posted: Saturday March 31, 2001 10:19 PM
Updated: Tuesday March 26, 2002 6:23 PM
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The Augusta Chronicle |
By John Boyette
The Augusta Chronicle
Bobby Jones wasn't quite sure what to call it.
It was an idea Jones conceived in 1926. It consisted of winning the four major titles of the era - the U.S. and British Opens and the U.S. and British Amateurs - in a calendar year. It, of course, was the Grand Slam.
To this day, no golfer has won as many major championships in a calendar year.
Jones knew that he would have a chance to play all four events in 1930 because the Walker Cup, a biennial event for amateurs, was scheduled for Great Britain that year. Most players used the overseas trip as an opportunity to play in the top British events. He confided his plan to O.B. Keeler, who chronicled Jones' exploits for the Atlanta Journal.
The idea of winning the Grand Slam wasn't out of the question. In 1926, Jones won the U.S. and British Opens. He lost in the late rounds of the British Amateur, and he dropped a close decision in the final of the U.S. Amateur.
After playing championship golf sparingly in the three years leading up to 1930, Jones prepared for the campaign like he never had before. At his home club, East Lake in Atlanta, Jones played a game called ``Doug'' to get himself in shape for the grueling months ahead. A hybrid game of paddle tennis and badminton, it was named for Jones' friend, actor Douglas Fairbanks.
The Walker Cup was scheduled for late spring, and Jones entered a pair of tournaments to test his game. At the Savannah Open in February, Jones set the course record with a 67 before eventually losing the tournament - and the course mark - to Horton Smith by a stroke.
The second event brought Jones to Augusta for the Southeastern Open, held at Forest Hills and the Augusta Country Club. Rounds of 72, 72, 69 and 71 gave Jones an incredible 13-stroke victory. He would later admit that it was one of his finest performances.
So inspiring was Jones' victory that Bobby Cruickshank, a leading golfer of the day, decided that he would wager on Jones to win all four tournaments.
``Bob is just too good,'' Cruickshank reportedly told Keeler. ``He's going to win the British Amateur and the British Open and then he's coming back here to win the National Open and the National Amateur. They'll never stop him this year.''
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| Bobby Jones |
Age : 28
Victories :
- Southeastern Open
- Golf Illustrated Golf Vase
- British Amateur
- British Open
- U.S. Open
- U.S. Amateur
Earnings : $0 (amateur)
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Cruickshank was not alone in his beliefs.
``The incredible thing was the pressure Jones had on him that year,'' said Sidney L. Matthew, a Tallahassee, Fla., attorney and Jones expert. ``All his friends were betting on him, and some were betting the farm. He played for fun, not for money. He didn't want his friends to suffer because he had a bad day on the golf course.''
If Jones was going to have a bad day, it didn't happen on the first leg of his journey. After captaining the U.S. team to a convincing Walker Cup victory, Jones next teed it up in the Golf Illustrated Gold Vase. He won it by a stroke with rounds of 75 and 68.
Next up was the British Amateur at St. Andrews, the only major title to elude him up to that point. After some close calls in the early rounds, Jones dispatched Roger Wethered 7&6 in the finals.
Buoyed with confidence, Jones won the British Open at Hoylake to become the first man in four decades to win both British events in the same year. His scores were progressively higher each round, but Jones managed a four-day total of 291 to edge Macdonald Smith and Leo Diegel by two strokes.
He was halfway home to the Grand Slam.
By this time, the secret was out. Keeler and his friends in the press knew what Jones was trying to achieve, which only added to the pressure.
Upon his arrival in New York from Europe, Jones was greeted with a ticker-tape parade on Broadway. He then headed for Minnesota, where the U.S. Open was being held at Interlachen.
Midway through the tournament, though, Jones was two shots behind old foe Horton Smith. The third round was vintage Jones, and only bogeys on the final two holes kept him from setting a single-round record. Instead he settled for a 68 and a five-stroke cushion heading into the final round that afternoon.
After struggling for much of the afternoon, including a controversial double bogey on the 71st hole, Jones sank a 40-foot birdie putt on the final hole to get in the clubhouse with a 287 total. Out on the course Mac Smith had cut into the lead, but came to the final hole needing an eagle to tie and failed.
Three down, one to go.
Jones believed winning the Grand Slam was preordained, and events leading up to the achievement seemed to prove him right.
``There were three episodes that almost denied Jones the opportunity to compete,'' said Matthew, the Jones expert. ``Jones had three freak accidents that almost ended his life.''
At East Lake, a severe storm chased Jones from the course. As he neared the clubhouse, a huge bolt of lightning hit the double chimney and sent bricks flying. One tore through Jones' umbrella and actually tore the shirt off his back. The only damage was a mark on his shoulder.
Then, going into a club in Atlanta, Jones was on his way to an appointment when a car slipped its parking brake and barreled toward him. A young boy warned Jones, who jumped out of harm's way at the last second.
``He would have been toast,'' Matthew said.
The first two events happened before the start of Jones' Grand Slam campaign. The final near-death experience occurred as Jones was leaving Interlachen and heading for home.
Discovered by Matthew in recent years, the incident came as Jones was traveling via train through Trevino, Wis.
``There was a U.S. Air Mail pilot named Mal P. Freeburg who saw a mile ahead that the train trestle was on fire and burning,'' Matthew said. ``He then immediately turned his plane around, tipped his wing and dropped three flares.''
The train stopped in time, saving Jones' life as well as countless others. But the only recognition the pilot got, according to Matthew, was an admonishment from the postmaster for requesting three new flares.
By September, the frenzy over Jones was at a fever pitch. The pressure had grown to the point that Jones had let Keeler know that he was going to retire from competition, no matter what.
Merion Cricket Club, on the outskirts of Philadelphia, was the setting for the U.S. Amateur. Fourteen years earlier, on this very course, Jones had made his national debut at the tender age of 14. Played in late September, Jones had a full two months to prepare for the final leg of the Grand Slam.
Nobody came close to stopping him. In the qualifying, he won medalist honors with rounds of 69 and 73. He won his first three matches by no less a margin than 5&4, then whipped Jess Sweetser 9&8 in the semifinals. With an overflow crowd on hand for the 36-hole finale, Jones didn't waste any time against Eugene Homans. He closed out his opponent on the 11th hole of the second 18, winning the match 8&7.
Similar to the home run campaigns of Roger Maris and Mark McGwire, some argue whether an asterisk should be attached to Jones' record because two of his wins came against all-amateur fields.
``In those days the amateur fields were just as tough, if not tougher, than the professional fields,'' said Furman Bisher, longtime columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. ``He never won the British Amateur until his last year.''
Nearly two months after winning the U.S. Amateur, Jones sent a letter to the U.S. Golf Association announcing his retirement. Shortly after, he bought a piece of property in Augusta that would turn out to be his dream course, Augusta National Golf Club.
Although Bisher never saw Jones play, the two developed a friendship in later years through the Masters Tournament.
``He wasn't playing for money. He was playing to win majors,'' he said.
But the years of being the favorite, of carrying the weight of lofty expectations, had taken a toll on Jones.
``He had to fight old man par, Jones against the field, Jones against the elements, Jones against the odds, and Jones against Jones,'' Matthew said. ``That's why you only see four of the greatest years that span 100 years. That's why you don't see it every year.''
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