Bobby Jones

Golfing legend Bobby Jones was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 17, 1903. He began playing golf as a young child, and won his first tournament when he was nine years old. In 1916, at age 14, he made it to the third round of the US National Amateur tournament. Golf was not just a passion with him but almost an obsession, and while he was attending the Georgia School of Technology--from which he graduated in 1922--he continued playing golf, and his astonishing skill at the game resulted in his becoming one of the most admired sports stars of the 1920s and widely credited with making golf one of the most popular sports in the country. He won the US Open in 1923--his first major tournament win--and again in 1924, 1925, 1927, 1928 and 1930. He took the US Amateur title in 1924, 1925, 1927 and 1928 and the British Open championship in 1926, 1927 and 1930. In 1930 he took the US Open and US Amateur titles and British Open and British Amateur titles, a feat that has never been duplicated. He won a total of 13 major championships. He was a member of the US Walker Cup teams in 1922, 1924, 1926, 1928 and 1930. In 1931 he began making a series of short instructional films, titled "How I Play Golf", for Warner Brothers Pictures, which were tremendously successful. Directed by veteran filmmaker--and duffer--George Marshall, these shorts featured many Hollywood golfing enthusiasts such as Leon Errol, Joe E. Brown and W.C. Fields, who appeared in them for the opportunity to be instructed by a man many believed to be the finest golfer in the history of the game. Jones retired from golf shortly after starting these films--since he was being paid for them he could no longer claim amateur status--and, since he was admitted to the Georgia bar in 1928 after obtaining his law degree from Emory University in 1927, he opened a law practice in Atlanta. Jones helped to establish the Augusta National Golf Club, and in 1934 he founded the annual Masters Tournament, held at the club; it eventually became one of the most prestigious tournaments in the game. In 1948 he suffered a spinal injury that resulted in his being confined to a wheelchair, but he continued to run his diverse business interests from his home in Atlanta. In 1958 he was accorded the singular honor of being allowed "freedom of the burgh" at St. Andrews, Scotland--the last American to receive that honor was American Revolution figure Benjamin Franklin. Bobby Jones died in Atlanta, Georgia, on December 18, 1971.