After his win in the British Amateur at St. Andrews,
Jones spent a week relaxing with his wife Mary in Paris before arriving at
Hoylake for the British Open. In his two qualifying rounds before the tournament,
Jones shot a 73 and 77. Clearly not playing his best golf, Jones nonetheless
set his sights on finding a way to win the second leg of the Grand Slam. Jones
struggled throughout the tournament with erratic play by his standards. Although
among the leaders all the way, he began to appear mortal on the golf course,
missing short putts and allowing his competitors to remain within striking
distance. Perhaps a turning point in the championship occurred at the par
5 16th hole during the final round. Desperately needing a birdie, Jones hit
a perfect drive and went for the green with a brassie. He pulled the shot
and the ball landed in the bunker left of the green with a difficult lie.
Jones realized he couldn't make a full backswing but he still needed to get
the ball up in the air quickly to clear the lip of the bunker. He decided
to play the shot with a concave sand wedge given to him by Horton Smith at
the Savannah Open earlier in the year. Having never hit a shot of any consequence
with the club before, Jones took an awkward stance with his right foot on
top of the bank and delivered a sharp, descending blow to the ball. The ball
popped softly out of the bunker, cleared the lip and came to rest inches from
the hole. Jones tapped in for birdie and made par on the last two holes for
a final round 75. Despite playing some of his sloppiest golf, Jones won the
British Open by two shots over Macdonald Smith and Leo Diegel, breaking the
course record set by Walter Hagen in 1924 by ten strokes. Bobby Jones became
the first man to win both the British Amateur and Open championships in the
same year since John Ball accomplished the feat some forty years earlier.
Having finished his business overseas, he now set his sights on completing
the last two legs of the Grand Slam.
