Bobby Jones Legacy

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.