The grand slam

When Bobby Jones won all four majors in 1930, the sports world searched for ways to capture the magnitude of his accomplishment. The Atlanta Journal’s O.B. Keeler dubbed it the “Grand Slam,” borrowing a bridge term. George Trevor of the New York Sun wrote that Jones had “stormed the impregnable quadrilateral of golf.” Keeler would later write: This victory, the fourth major title in the same season and in the space of four months, had now and for all time entrenched Bobby Jones safely within the “Impregnable Quadrilateral of Golf”, that granite fortress that he alone could take by escalade, and that others may attack in vain, forever.

Keeler was prescient: No golfer has since equaled this achievement.

“In my mind today the accomplishment of the Grand Slam assumes more importance as an example of the value of perseverance in the abstract than as a monument to skill in the playing of a game. I am certain that in those moments when the success of the project was most in doubt, the decisive factor in each case had been my ability, summoned from somewhere, to keep control of myself and to keep trying as hard as I could, even when there was no clear indication of the direction in which hope of victory might lie.”

– Bobby Jones, Golf is My Game

Bobby Jones sailed for England in April of 1930 as captain of the U.S. Walker Cup team. Jones and his teammates would compete against their British counterparts at Royal St. George’s in Sandwich, England before playing in the British Amateur and Open Championships. Jones played well in the Walker Cup competition, winning both his foursome and individual matches as the U.S. won 10 of 12 matches overall. Following the Walker Cup, Jones played in a 36–hole tournament sponsored by Golf Illustrated and won by a stroke. Playing at the top of his game, he traveled to St. Andrews for the 41st British Amateur Championship and the first step toward the Grand Slam.

After a bye in the first round, Jones played his first match against Sid Roper, a relatively unknown player and former coal miner from Nottingham. Although Jones started with an amazing display of golf that left him five under par after five holes, Roper remained just three down and matched his legendary opponent stroke for stroke the rest of the match. Roper would finish the match with 15 fours and a single five, finally yielding after the 16th hole, 3 and 2. Jones had survived the first big test of his championship run, later acknowledging that Roper’s great play would likely have demolished anyone else in the field.

Jones’ closest match came in the fourth round against Cyril Tolley, the defending British Amateur champion. Despite extremely windy conditions, nearly every man, woman and child in the town turned out to watch. The match went back and forth with each man leading three different times by the time they reached the 17th tee. Playing the famous “Road Hole” all even, Jones elected to play his second shot to the left of the imposing pot bunker in the front of the green. Tolley played to the right and ended up just short of the bunker with a delicate, downwind chip to a tightly tucked pin. Tolley then played what he later called the finest shot of his life–a beautiful pitch to within two feet. Jones matched Tolley’s shot by getting up and down to keep the match even. Although the two remained all square at the end of 18 holes, Jones went on to win the match on the first extra hole advancing to the next round.

While Jones would not be forced into extra holes again, his remaining matches were not without drama. In the semi–finals against George Voigt, Jones had difficulty with his depth perception––the result of sipping a glass of sherry during lunch–and found himself down two holes with five to play. However, Jones won the 14th and 16th holes and calmly made a twelve–foot, curling putt on 17 to halve the hole. He then went on to win the 18th hole, and the match, 1 up.

In the final, Jones defeated Roger Wethered, the 1923 British Amateur champion, 7 and 6. Some 15,000 spectators swamped the American legend in a scene of incredible pandemonium. The crowd was so overwhelming that local constables had to escort Jones during the mile and a half walk back to the clubhouse.

Bobby Jones had finally captured the only major tournament that had eluded him to that point. The first leg of the Grand Slam had proven to be anything but a given and was ultimately the closest call of all. Jones would later call it perhaps the most important tournament of his life. Legendary golf writer Charles Price would later write that the British Amateur proved to be the most obstinate championship of Jones’ life, from which he managed to extract the last possible ounce of drama.