No Question About Jones’ Slam in ’30

Leave it to Bobby Jones to set the standard for what is known as the Grand Slam.

Jones was 28 and at the top of his game in 1930 when he set a goal of winning all four of what then were golf’s major championships. A lifelong amateur, Jones accomplished the feat, dubbed by an Atlanta sportswriter as the “Grand Slam.”

He won the British Amateur on the Old Course at St. Andrews--defeating Roger Wethered, 7 and 6, in the final--and the British Open at Royal Liverpool in Hoylake, England, by two shots over Macdonald Smith and Leo Diegel.

He went on to win the U.S. Open at Interlachen Country Club in Minneapolis by two shots, over Smith again, and finished with his fourth major victory in the U.S. Amateur at Merion, Pa., drubbing Eugene Homans, 8 and 7.

Satisfied, Jones retired from golf.

His record endures as a landmark for golfers, and Jones as one of golf’s brightest stars. From 1923-30, he won 13 of the 21 major championships he played in. His record includes five U.S Amateurs, one British Amateur, four U.S. Opens and three British Opens.

Jones, who studied engineering at Georgia Tech, earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, then earned another in English literature at Harvard. He studied law at Emory University in Atlanta for a year, then passed the bar exam.

Jones died of a spinal disease in 1971, at 69.