Bobby Jones was one of the greatest
players in the history of golf. But, to describe Jones in only those terms
is to tell just a small portion of the story. Jones was a man of many interests,
pursuing a demanding and diverse education even as he was becoming a legend
in golf. He graduated from Georgia Tech with a mechanical engineering degree
in 1920 when he was only 18 years old. A dean remembered him as "a real gentleman
in every respect: modest, unassuming, never mentioning his golf game." At
21, Jones went to Harvard College, earning an English degree in just three
semesters. Ineligible to play on the golf team because he was a graduate of
Georgia Tech, Jones sought the position of team manager in order to earn his
crimson Harvard letter. Unfortunately, the position was taken, so the 1922
U.S. Open runner-up took the position of assistant manager. During that year,
Jones single handedly defeated all six of Harvard's top golfers in an informal
match. He became a member of the Harvard Varsity Hall of Fame, although he
never formally competed. At 24, Jones attended Emory University Law School
in Atlanta. After completing one year of study, he decided to take the bar
exam. When he passed, Jones withdrew from law school to join his father's
firm as a practicing lawyer. Not surprisingly, Jones was also an accomplished
writer, authoring some of the greatest books and articles ever written on
the game of golf. In 1927, at the age of 25, Jones wrote Down the Fairway
with the help of his close friend, Atlanta journalist O.B. Keeler. The book
was initially serialized in Liberty magazine, one of the nation's largest
weekly publications and went into a third printing within two months. Eventually,
it was released in its sixth printing in 1985 and remains a golf classic.
Because of their life long friendship, it is easy to assume that much of what
Jones wrote through the years was done with the help of Keeler. Actually,
nothing could be further from the truth. Between 1927 and 1935 Jones authored
hundreds of syndicated newspaper columns, all of which he wrote himself without
the help of a "ghost" writer. Thirty years later, Jones would assemble some
of the best of those articles into a book entitled simply, Bobby Jones on
Golf. Along the way Jones authored another book, Golf is My Game, and wrote
occasional articles for Grantland Rice's outstanding publication, The American
Golfer.
