Peter Williams: The Jones legacy never to be rewritten

This Tuesday, September 27, is the 75th anniversary of the completion of Bobby Jones' Grand Slam.

Three quarters of a century ago at the Merion Cricket Club in Philadelphia, Jones won the US Amateur Championship for the fifth and final time. That same year he'd also won the British Amateur, the British Open and the US Open. It's an achievement which will never be repeated and may be the greatest feat in the history of the game.

On St Patrick's Day, 1930, Bobby Jones turned 28. He had engineering and English degrees from Georgia Tech and Harvard and had passed the bar exam after one year at Emory University Law School in Atlanta. He had already won the US Amateur four times, the US Open three, the British Open twice but never the British Amateur.

For someone who seldom played more than 80 rounds of golf a year, he worked harder than usual on his fitness over the American winter of 1929-30 as he prepared for an audacious sweep of the then major championships. It was a plan he told no one about.

"I felt reluctant to admit that I considered myself capable of such an accomplishment. Actually, I did make plans for the golfing year with precisely this end in view," he told reporters when it was all over.

First was the British Amateur at St Andrews. Jones won seven matches en route to the final against Roger Wethered. Over the best of 36 holes, Jones whipped his British opponent 7 and 6.

That was on the final day of May. Jones and his wife Mary went on a short holiday break to Paris before returning for the British Open at Hoylake near Liverpool, starting on June 18. Jones led through the first two days on two under par, surrendered the front-running to Archie Compston after round three but on the final afternoon battled for 75 while Compston collapsed completely with 82. Jones finished three over, two clear of Leo Diegel and Macdonald Smith.

The US Open came three weeks later at Interlachen Country Club in Minneapolis. Jones shot one under for four rounds to again beat Macdonald Smith by two.

Now the expectation and anticipation reached fever pitch leading up to the US Amateur at Merion. When it finally started two months after the Open, he dominated from the start.

Top qualifier after rounds of 69 and 73, Jones romped through his five matches to win the championship, culminating in an 8 and 7 defeat of Gene Homans in the final.

Jones could achieve no more in golf. His friend, sports writer O.B Keeler, called the four wins the Grand Slam. Another writer, George Trevor of the New York Sun, said Jones "had stormed the impregnable quadrilateral of golf."

The popular legend has it that after his 1930 Grand Slam, Jones retired to his Atlanta law practice. But his income was augmented by a series of short films called How I Play Golf which were made in 1931 and for which Jones was paid $100,000. He also designed Spalding golf clubs which bore his name. He never turned professional but earned more endorsement money than any pro of his era.

He wrote five books, helped design and build Augusta National and co-founded the Masters tournament. Robert Tyre Jones Junior died in December 1971 of the degenerative disease syringomyelia.

Numerous tributes speak of his courage dealing with the ailment for over 20 years before his death. He is reported to have said often of his illness: "in life as in golf, you play it as it lies."

Golf is way more inclusive and international now than it was 75 years ago. But wherever on this planet the game travels, Bobby Jones' Grand Slam of 1930 will forever be a watershed in its evolution.