Biography of Legendary Golfer Bobby Jones

Bobby Jones was the greatest amateur golfer in the history of the sport. Unlike the vast majority of talented golfers that become professionals, Bobby Jones chose to forgo lucrative tournament purses in favor of maintaining his amateur status. Had he turned professional, Jones would have earned large sums of money from the golf tournaments he won throughout his career. Instead, he insisted on remaining an amateur to continue playing golf simply for the love of the game. After all, the definition of amateur is someone who does something solely because they enjoy it. Despite being an amateur, Bobby Jones was better than any professional golfer of his generation and arguably the greatest golfer of all-time.

Bobby Jones was born in Atlanta, Georgia on St. Patrick's Day in 1902. As a young boy, Jones was very sick. At six years old, his health and strength improved and he started playing golf. His family lived near East Lake Country Club in Atlanta and Bobby spent countless hours at the East Lake golf course. Bobby Jones developed his beautiful swing by watching East Lake's club professional. He would follow the club professional around the golf course and try to imitate the professional's swing. Not long after, Bobby Jones began winning golf tournaments as a child. It was clear that he was a natural and had a gift for the game of golf.

The legend of Bobby Jones really began when he became the youngest golfer to ever qualify for the U.S. Amateur Championship in 1916. The fourteen-year-old golf prodigy did not win the tournament, but he shocked the nation by making it to the third round before losing to the defending champion. The sudden fame hurt Bobby Jones more than it helped him. The pressure to succeed was too much for him and he would not win his first major tournament until 1923. Finally, Bobby Jones won his first major with a victory at the 1923 U.S. Open in Inwood, New York. With his first major victory out of the way, Bobby Jones' success began to flourish. He went on to win twelve more major championships over the next seven years, before retiring from competitive golf at the age of 28. Had he not retired at such an early age, there is no telling how many major championships Bobby Jones could have won. Nevertheless, he won a total of thirteen majors by the time he retired.

The most remarkable accomplishment of Bobby Jones' golf career took place in 1930. Bobby Jones won all four major tournaments in the same season to complete the Grand Slam. He won the British Amateur, the U.S. Amateur, the British Open, and the U.S. Open all in 1930. Never before and never again has a golfer won all four major championships in the same year. Tiger Woods has won four majors in a row, but they were over the course of two seasons and not in the same year. Remarkably, Bobby Jones retired shortly after this amazing accomplishment. The greatest amateur golfer of all-time retired at the height of his career.

The legacy of Bobby Jones did not end with his playing career. Jones created Augusta National, which hosts the Masters golf tournament. The Masters is the only major championship that is played on the same golf course every year. The other three majors rotate between golf courses. The amazing thing about Bobby Jones was that he was not only a golfer. Jones was also a lawyer, an Army veteran, and a devoted family man. Bobby Jones truly lived life to the fullest.

Unfortunately, the sickness he experienced as a young boy would return, as he grew older. Bobby Jones was diagnosed with a debilitating disease of the central nervous system that forced him to live in pain for the last two decades of his life. Bobby Jones died in 1971 at the age of 69. Upon news of his death, the Old Course at St. Andrews lowered its flag to half-staff and golfers stopped play. The world was mourning the loss of Bobby Jones, the greatest golfer to ever play the game. Jones will not be forgotten though. His memory lives on and he is remembered every year in April when the Masters is played at Augusta National.