About the Program

The story of Bobby Jones is a landmark in sports history. Through his incredible skill and sportsmanship, the American amateur golfer popularized the sport on an international stage. In addition to being a world-renowned athlete, Bobby Jones was an extraordinary man of compassion and integrity who valued education as much as he loved golf. An alumnus of Emory University, Georgia Tech, and Harvard University, he created a legacy of academic excellence and leadership that lives on at Emory today. 

Born in Atlanta in 1902, Jones began playing golf at six years old at East Lake Golf Club, where his prodigious skill soon became self-evident. At only fourteen, he played to the third round of the National Amateur. That was only the beginning, as the great amateur went on to win thirteen of the world's toughest championships. 

It was in 1921 that nineteen-year-old Jones, relatively unknown on the international circuit, first arrived at the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews to compete in the British Open. Unsatisfied with his own performance in the tournament, he intentionally disqualified himself. A few years and championship wins later, at the U.S. Open in 1925, Jones called a penalty on himself for accidentally moving his own ball. When praised for his actions, he responded: “You might as well praise a man for not robbing a bank.”  

During his lifetime, Jones was well known for respecting the rules and acting with conviction, both on and off the course. Always one to push himself, Jones demonstrated strength of will, intellectual courage, and perseverance in every pursuit. In 1930 at age twenty-eight, Jones won all four major golfing championships, thus completing the first Grand Slam in history. To this day, he is the only golfer to have won the pre-Masters Grand Slam within one calendar year.  

After making his Grand Slam in 1930, he retired from competitive golf, opting instead to focus on his family, philanthropy, and legal career. He had already amassed an impressive academic resume, having studied Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech, English Literature at Harvard College, and Law at Emory University. He passed the bar after only three semesters at Emory and began practicing law with his father's firm. A true renaissance man, Jones was as knowledgeable in English literature as he was talented in golf. His mechanical engineering training proved an invaluable resource for his design of the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia in 1933, where he co-founded The Masters Tournament at the newly opened course just a year later.  

While he continued to make long-lasting innovations to golf on an international scale, Bobby Jones remained committed to the city and country he called home. He raised money for social services throughout Atlanta and served as an intelligence officer in England during WWII, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel.  

At the age of forty-six, an exploratory operation revealed that Jones was suffering from a rare disease that resulted in progressive paralysis. Alistair Cooke recalls an incident of Jones’ later years when an old friend asked him about his physical distress; "Well now, let's not talk about it. We play the ball, you know, as it lies."  

In 1958, Jones became the first American since Benjamin Franklin to be named a Freeman of the City of St Andrews—a testament to his enduring relationship to the city. In his acceptance speech for the honor, Jones explained, “I could take out of my life everything except my experiences at St Andrews, and I’d still have a rich full life.” 

Jones died in 1971 at the age of sixty-nine. He was later inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame and the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame.  To this day, he is remembered as a man who accepted life with humility, integrity, and wisdom and who rendered it a triumph through the strength and grace of his character.