It is not hard to believe that a well-educated young man of 24 should write a great book.  Especially a man that earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech, a BA in English Literature from Harvard and, after only one year at Emery Law School, passed the Georgia bar exam. 

It does seem hard to believe that he should also be the best golfer in the world at the time, but that is what he was.

Born March 17, 1902, in Atlanta, GA, Robert Tyre "Bobby" Jones Jr. remains the only golfer ever to win the Grand Slam -- all four major championships (the open and amateur championships in both the U.S. & Britain) in a single calendar year (1930).

 

Distinguished American golf writer and historian and the founding editor of the Classics of Golf, Herbert Warren Wind wrote of Bobby Jones, "In the opinion of many people, of all the great athletes, Jones came the closest to being what we call a great man." 

 

After becoming the first golfer to win in one season (1926) the British and American Open titles, Bob Jones sat down and wrote what many consider to be the best book of golf: Down the Fairway.

 

Being a part-time amateur golfer, however gifted, Jones thought that he would never again perform at such a high level. It was a good time, he thought, to tell his story. Four years later, at the ripe old age of 28, Jones had that magical year, which has become one of golf's best stories and considered by many the outstanding sports achievement of all time.

One of the factors which gives Down the Fairway such a strong hold over the reader is precisely that it was written before the Grand Slam when Jones could be more intimate with the reader.  As great an event as was the Grand Slam, it had its drawbacks.  

The glare of fame and publicity it focused on Jones was withering. What he had for breakfast every morning practically became national headlines. Of all the heroic athletes of the 1920s - Dempsey, Tilden, Weissmuller, Tunney, even Ruth - Jones was the most idolized. To have written an autobiography under such conditions would have been most difficult.

His good friend, O.B. Keeler (pictured with Jones above), shares the title page with Jones, Keeler was a gifted sportswriter for the Atlanta Journal; although, his fame is due more to his having been Jones's "Boswell." It is fair to say that, while Keeler contributed to the shaping of the projects and the book, the writing is Jones's and purely Jones's.

In 1982, the University of St. Andrews awarded Mr. Bird an Honorary Doctor of Laws and, in his remarks, he noted that the University, the oldest in Scotland, was founded in 1411 - 81 years before this country was even discovered. Jack Nicklaus received the same degree from the University before the 1984 British Open. In 1958, Bob Jones became the second American - the first was Benjamin Franklin - to be given The Freedom of the City of St. Andrews. He considered this honor the highlight of his career and, in his acceptance speech at the presentation ceremony at Younger Hall, he said: "I could take out of my life everything except my experiences at St. Andrews and I would still have had a rich and full life."