Prior to golf's competitive season
of 1930, Bobby Jones' list of accomplishments had already reached a level
that would have forever etched his name among the greatest to ever play the
game. His impressive collection of tournament victories included nine national
championships-three U.S. Open, four U.S. Amateur and two British Open victories.
Perhaps even more impressive was the fact that Jones had put together such
a record as an amateur player. So, to those following the game of golf entering
the 1930 season, it would have seemed there was nothing more the great Bobby
Jones could do that he had not already done.
With seemingly no more mountains to climb, Jones set his sights on the unthinkable.
Confiding in no one, Jones made plans to win all four major championships-the
British Open, British Amateur, U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur championships-in
one season. Later, when asked if he had started the year expecting to win
all four, Jones responded, "I felt reluctant to admit that I considered myself
capable of such an accomplishment…actually, I did make plans for that golfing
year with precisely this end in view."
Most winters, Jones hung up his clubs. But in 1930, Jones worked hard to stay
in shape for the upcoming season. Wanting to ensure he was in top physical
condition, Jones played a game called "Doug," a cross between paddle tennis
and badminton, invented by his friend Douglas Fairbanks. In the spring, Jones
competed in the Savannah and Southeastern Open tournaments as a tune up for
the British and American championships.
When Bobby Jones won all four majors in 1930, the sports world searched for
ways to capture the magnitude of his accomplishment. Up to that time, there
was no term to describe such a feat because no one had thought it possible.
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 the words
that would forever be linked to one of the greatest individual accomplishments
in the history of sports: 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.
