Bobby Jones Legacy

ABOUT BOBBY JONES


The story of Bobby Jones is a landmark in sports history. Born in Atlanta in 1902, Jones became recognized as a prodigy at golf. At age fourteen, he played to the third round of the National Amateur.

It was in 1921 that the 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. That was only the beginning, as the great amateur went on to win thirteen of the world's toughest championships. In 1930 at age twenty-eight, Jones won the British and United States Open and Amateur championships-the first Grand Slam.

After making his Grand Slam in 1930, he retired from competitive golf and continued his development as a true Renaissance man. In his mid-twenties Jones attended Emory University School of Law, passed the bar, and began practicing law with his father's firm. He had already earned degrees in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech and English literature from Harvard before his first victory in a major tournament. Jones was as knowledgeable in English literature as he was talented in golf, and his mechanical engineering training proved an invaluable resource for his design of the Masters course in Augusta.

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 Bobby's 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."

Jones died in 1971 at the age of sixty-nine. He continues to be 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.

Take a brief look back - and forward - to learn more about Bobby Jones and the place he called home: Atlanta.

18 POINTS OF HISTORY


Explore some of the milestones of Bobby Jones' life and the Bobby Jones Program at Emory.

1922

Jones graduates from Georgia Tech

.01

1927

Jones with the Open in St Andrews by six strokes

.02

1929

Jones enters Emory Law School

.03

1976

Robert T. Jones, Jr. Scholarship established

.04

1977

Emory student David Marshall completes his year as first Jones Scholar

.05

1978

Jones Program expands to include scholars from St Andrews

.06

1983

Jones Program grows to include four scholars each from Emory and St Andrews

.07

1987

10th anniversary of the Jones Scholarship

.08

1989

Jones inducted into the Georgia Hall of Fame

.09

2001

Jones Program expands to include exchange with Georgia Tech

.10

2002

Jones Program's 25th anniversary commemorated in St Andrews

.11

2008

First Jones Fellow exchange between Emory and St Andrews

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2011

St Andrews celebrates 600th anniversary

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2012

Friends of Bobby Jones established by John Imlay

.14

2014

$1M gift from John and Mary Ellen Imlay to establish Jones Program in Ethics

.15

2015

"Game of Life" exhibit opens at Rose Library at Emory

.16

2016

First student awarded the Jones Biomedical Engineering Award

.17

2017

Inaugural Jones Legacy Golf Tournament at East Lake Golf Club

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