Legend of Bobby Jones Growing Strong at 60th Masters

Masters week begins Monday at Augusta National and you can bet your blooming azaleas that nostalgia will flow as freely as Rae’s Creek in the place where the legend of Bobby Jones still thrives.

Actually, it’s getting even bigger, 25 years after his death. Jones’ reputation as the greatest golfer in history is enhanced by two new projects, “The Life and Times of Bobby Jones” that will be broadcast today on CBS-TV and Sid Matthew’s best-selling book of the same name, upon which the television show was based.

Sean Connery narrates the CBS broadcast that seems to jump off the screen--like one of Jones’ tee shots produced by his famous driver nicknamed Jeanie Deans.

Rare footage of Jones never before shown on television includes film of Jones rising out of his wheelchair at a ceremony to receive citizenship of St. Andrews in 1958. Benjamin Franklin in 1759 was the only other to be so honored.

Golf historians will get a kick out of the famous Jones swing as it is captured in slow motion while Tchaikovsky’s music from “The Nutcracker” is heard.

Matthew, a trial lawyer from Tallahassee, Fla., is a noted golf historian. He said the greening of Bob Jones is ongoing.

“He is one of the few whose persona has outgrown the legend,” Matthew said. “Churchill was one of the few others that way.”

Jones designed Augusta National with famed architect Alister MacKenzie in 1932. Two years later, he invited some of his friends to play a friendly golf tournament at the club. The event became the Masters.

Jones never won that tournament, but he won just about everything else.

He won 13 of the 27 major tournaments in which he played and won 23 of the 52 events he entered in his career.

He won the so-called Grand Slam in 1930 with victories in the British Open, the British Amateur, the U.S. Open and the U.S. Amateur.

The 297-page book was published by Sleeping Bear Press, which caused a stir last year with its release of “The Spirit of St. Andrews,” a previously lost document penned by MacKenzie.

Matthew worked on his book for 15 years and came away with an even greater appreciation of Jones.

“He had his priorities,” Matthew said. “Family first, then his profession, the law. Then his other pursuits. Lastly, it was golf.

“Jones really was a hero after 5 o’clock. The old-fashioned hero, the same guy on the field of play as the one after the bell rings at 5 o’clock. He didn’t change. He didn’t go home and beat his wife, kick the dog, act like a miserable human being.

“He was not lopsided toward genius in one part of his life and then deficient in other areas of his personality. We could use somebody like him right now.”

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Big three: How’s this for a trio? Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods will play a Masters practice round together Wednesday at Augusta National.

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Get the tailor: For what it’s worth, Golf Digest picked Phil Mickelson as the favorite to win the Masters.

Following Mickelson, in order, Golf Digest listed Ernie Els, Greg Norman, Corey Pavin, Fred Couples, Nick Faldo, Steve Elkington, Nick Price, Davis Love III and John Daly.

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Money news: Copying the successful season-ending championship on the PGA Tour, the LPGA will begin playing its version of the event in November.

The first LPGA Tour Championship is scheduled for Nov. 21-24 at the Sheraton Desert Inn in Las Vegas. Prize money is $700,000, which means that as far as money goes, the LPGA has some traveling to do to match the PGA Tour’s season-ending tournament purse of $3 million.

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A Legend in the moving? It has been in the desert for only two years, but the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf may be on the move again, possibly in 1998.

Gibby Gilbert, a member of the Senior PGA Tour’s players advisory council, said PGA West was too tough a course, early tee times to accommodate television were wrong and the crowds were small.

“Hopefully, it will move as soon as next year,” Gilbert said.

Liberty Mutual has a five-year agreement with KSL, which owns PGA West, to stage the event, but both parties can terminate the agreement after each event.

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Let Jack Parr in: Ready for the Celebrity Golf Hall of Fame? It’s coming to Ballymeade Country Club in North Falmouth, Mass., on Cape Cod.

The first entries in the Hall are John F. Kennedy, Bob Hope, Katherine Hepburn, Sammy Davis Jr., Kirk Douglas and Clint Eastwood.

The six will be inducted July 13 as part of a celebrity golf tournament at Ballymeade. The event benefits the Christopher Reeve and Travis Roy Foundations.

Golf Notes

The LPGA Urban Youth Golf Program’s fifth LPGA junior pro-am will be held Monday at Woodland Hills Country Club. Amy Alcott and Kay Cockerill are the hosts. Details: (310) 419-1980. . . . The Masters has a website on the Internet. It can be accessed at the Internet address https://www.masters.org. . . . The Cheesecake Factory charity celebrity tournament will be played Monday at Braemar. The event benefits Share Our Strength, which fights hunger. Details: (310) 823-1826. . . . The seventh Paul Runyan Orthopaedic Hospital tournament will be held April 29 at Oakmont in Glendale. Runyan, a two-time PGA champion, is in the Hall of Fame. Details: (213) 748-2217. . . . The 10th Roger Barkley celebrity tournament will be played April 19 at Brookside. The event benefits young programs in the San Gabriel Valley and other charities. Details: (818) 790-5499. . . . The 72nd Cravens Invitational will be played May 15-19 at San Gabriel Country Club. Amateur teams compete in a match play. Details: (818) 287-9671. . . . Santa Monica-based American Golf announced its intention to add as many as 30 courses to its management portfolio. AGC recently added Dove Canyon Country Club, a Jack Nicklaus-designed layout in Orange County. . . . The first UCLA summer golf camp will be held June 23-29 at Desert Princess Country Club in Palm Springs. UCLA golf Coach Brad Sherfy will head the camp. Details: (310) 206-3550. . . . Alcott will be one of those honored at the fifth Great Sports Legends Dinner to benefit The Paralysis Project of America, which will be held Thursday at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Details: (800) 869-8958. . . . The fifth H.E.L.P. Fore Children QST Travel Group Golf Classic will be held April 22 at El Caballero. The event benefits the H.E.L.P. Group, designed to aid children and families with special needs related to abuse, abandonment, neglect, mental retardation, autism and learning disabilities. Details: (818) 779-5124.