Jones Puts Final Touch on Grand Slam Effort

In June 1930, when he returned to the United States after winning the British Open championship (and earlier the British Amateur), Bobby Jones was accorded a New York City ticker-tape parade.

He was, at 28, at the peak of his golfing career, it seemed.

But he was merely halfway through the greatest year any golfer has had.

Jones, who had won the U.S. Open three times and the British Open twice before 1930, had two rungs left in what was then golf’s Grand Slam: winning the British Amateur and Open, and the U.S. Open and Amateur in a single year.

Jones next won the third leg of the Grand Slam, the U.S. Open, at Minneapolis’ Interlachen Country Club at Minneapolis--by two strokes over Mac Smith. Then he waited two months for the U.S. Amateur at Merion Country Club, near Philadelphia.

In the interim, fate seemed with him. He averted what could have been a fatal accident when a lightning bolt that struck a chimney above him jolted loose a shower of bricks that fell inches from his head.

Two weeks later, in New York City, a driverless car crashed into a store near where he was walking, requiring him to execute a life-saving standing long jump into the street.

The sports world held its breath when the U.S. Amateur began in September. The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin assembled a team of 16 writers and photographers to cover Jones. His galleries, the largest in the history of golf at the time, numbered up to 18,000.

After two rounds of qualifying, he defeated four opponents at match play, Ross Somerville, 5 and 4; F.G. Hoblitzel, 5 and 4; Fay Coleman, 6 and 5; Jess Sweetser, 9 and 8; and Eugene V. Homans, a Princeton man who pushed Jones to the 29th hole before needing a 40-foot putt to keep the match alive.

Homans’ putt was wide and he was the first to congratulate Jones, who was then engulfed by Marine Corps bodyguards, brought in to protect him from the crowd that swarmed the green.

It was Jones’ fifth U.S. Amateur win in seven tries. In five months, he had achieved the Grand Slam.

Two months later, Jones, having never turned pro, announced his retirement.

Also on this date: In 1973, at Anaheim, Nolan Ryan fanned Rich Reese of the Twins for his 383rd strikeout, still the all-time one-season record. . . . In 1936, at St. Louis, Walter Alston of the Cardinals replaced Johnny Mize at first base. He struck out in his only at-bat and made one error in two fielding plays. That was the future Dodger manager’s only major league appearance as a player. Add Alston: He retired as Dodger manager 23 years ago today.