The Grand Slam
While dozens of male and female athletes excelled in the 1920s, none captured the public imagination quite like Robert Tyre “Bobby” Jones Jr. During his career, he played in 31 majors and placed first or second better than 50 percent of the time. Jones won five of eight U.S. Amateurs he entered after 1923; won one of the two British Amateurs in which he competed; finished first or second in the U.S. Open every year between 1922 and 1930 except 1927; and won three of the four British Opens he entered. He became the first golfer to win both open championships in a single year and remains the only golfer to win the Grand Slam – golf's four major championships in a single year, which at the time were the British Amateur, British Open, U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur.
From May to September in 1930, Jones embarked on an incredible journey in which Interlachen Country Club played a starring role. His goal was so improbable that Lloyd's of London set the odds of Jones capturing the four majors at 50 to 1. The selection of Interlachen to host the 34th U.S. Open in 1930 was a bit of a surprise, given the remoteness of Minneapolis and that prestigious East Coast and Chicago clubs previously had hosted most of the championships. Interlachen joined the likes of Shinnecock and Winged Foot in New York, Baltusrol in New Jersey, Oakmont (Pa.), The Country Club (Brookline, Mass.), Chicago Golf Club and The Minikahda Club (1916) in Minneapolis in hosting the Open.
At the time, the U.S. Open was touted as the biggest sporting event to ever come to the Twin Cities. The buzz surrounding Jones was deafening when he arrived by train in Minneapolis after having just won the first two legs of the Slam – the British Amateur at St. Andrews and British Open at Royal Liverpool. His victory at Interlachen on July 12 and U.S. Amateur victory at Merion Cricket Club two months later made sports history – and gave Interlachen national and international prominence.
Jones came to Minnesota a mere nine months after the stock market had crashed. With his modest demeanor, boyish looks and incredible talent, he was a bright spot at the start of the Great Depression. The event, and Jones’ quest for the third leg of the Slam, attracted more than 30,000 spectators for the championship. This is particularly notable considering that the temperatures surpassed 100 degrees and caused 17 deaths within three days in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis Tribune, July 13, 1930).
Jones’ national celebrity transcended golf, and coverage of the event was front-page news. His humility and skill helped popularize the sport. His allure helped golf gain popularity outside the country club set. People who otherwise cared little for golf were captivated by Jones and his quest. At age 28, he was even more attractive because he was a successful attorney in his hometown of Atlanta and a life-long amateur. This was a time when professionals, such as Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen, were denied access to country clubs and were treated as second-class citizens. Jones would have earned $1,000 for his victory at Interlachen had he been a professional, but he never entertained giving up his amateur status.
Jones and his quest created attention for the U.S. Open like never before. There were hundreds of reporters from around the world. For the first time, telephones were placed on the course at every third hole to report play immediately to the waiting news wires. Newspaper stories, typical to the era of Grantland Rice and O.B. Keeler, were colorfully written, using vivid language to convey the excitement of the action. The Open also was broadcast on live radio for the first time. Players were interviewed after their rounds at the KSTP broadcasting stand west of the clubhouse. There was national radio coverage as well (New York Times, July 12, 1930). Ted Husing carried a portable transmitter and microphone while he followed the players and covered the action for CBS, while Keeler reported for NBC. Motion picture trucks for Pathe, Hearst Metrotone and Paramount Sound News were on site. Players watched themselves in action in moving pictures played at the downtown Radisson Hotel on Friday night. The comprehensive coverage allowed the entire world to follow Jones’ improbable pursuit.
The heat affected course conditions and put tremendous strain on players and spectators. The record temperatures and dry conditions made the course play harder and faster with each round and killed the grass on the fifth green. According to Bill Kidd, sand was smoothed over the fifth green to make it playable. Other greens also were in poor condition but the fifth was the worst because of its low location with no air circulation.
Those lucky enough to be on the course labored in the oppressive conditions to get as close to him as possible. The Minneapolis Journal (July 10, 1930) reported: “Eight thousand pushing, shoving, perspiring, panting persons walked and ran over the grassy hills and valleys of the Interlachen golf course today to watch 143 of the nation’s greatest golfers play their first round in the National Open golf tournament. Every one of the eight thousand was in imminent danger of sunstroke or heat prostration as they raced across the course.”
Despite many hills that provided prime viewing and helped disperse the crowd, the people followed Jones. Spectators dashed down fairways to position themselves to view his next shot, causing inevitable distractions. In an era before roped-off fairways, the marshals used bamboo fishing poles to keep back the surging crowd. The Minneapolis Journal (July 10, 1930) reported that “a bodyguard did its best to keep his admirers off Bobby, with two big furled umbrellas to push them back. Small boys tried to get the closest to their hero, but men and women alike shoved nearer.” There was a frenetic energy in the air.
1930 US Open - Bobby Jones Grand Slam
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1930 US Open - Bobby Jones on 7th Tee
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The Odds-on Favorite
Jones was the main attraction at the Open and the favorite to defend the title he won the previous year at Winged Foot, but a host of notable professional players were expected to contend and local participants added to the high interest. Bookmakers debated about whether Jones was a 7-to-5 or 8-to-5 favorite, followed by professionals Horton Smith and Walter Hagen at 4-to-1, Gene Sarazen at 6-to-1 and Tommy Armour at 10-to-1. It was Jones against the field. But his competitors told a different story as the (Minneapolis Tribune, July 10, 1930) reported: “The professionals, most of them, are picking Hagen, Sarazen and Diegel to beat Bobby. They do not feel it is in the books for Bobby to win the Open this year. They cannot see the Atlanta barrister winning his third major championship in one season, a feat that never has been done in the history of golfing competition. There are too many good golfers in the field for Mr. Jones to have the edge accorded him the ‘experts’ in this championship.”
Despite the odds, the course and the pressure Jones faced equalized the competition. In general, the players thought the course was a fair test despite small, undulating greens and thick rough that was expected to cost a stroke. The Minneapolis Journal (July 9, 1930) speculated, “Another reason is the utter fairness of the Interlachen course, which has no harassing trouble such as could throw a man entirely out of the running. There are mild penalties for every slip here, but always recoveries are possible. In other words, there will be no fatal accidents … a dozen players or more will be well bunched through the three days of competition.”
Jones’ challengers were formidable. As Mark Frost explained in his book, The Grand Slam, Horton Smith was a smooth-swinging, 21-year-old professional from Missouri. Considered one of the best putters in golf history, “The Missouri Rover” won the first Masters in 1934 and again in 1936.
Hagen brought color and glamour to the game with an impeccable wardrobe of plus-fours and two-toned shoes and a flamboyant personality that always guaranteed a huge gallery. Born in New York, “The Haig” appeared older than his 37 years, weathered from a fast and lavish lifestyle, but he was a real threat to Jones, having won 11 major championships. Horton and Hagen were playing with steel-shafted clubs, whereas Jones did not embrace the new technology and continued to play with hickory shafts.
New Yorker Sarazen was short and confident and made a grand entrance at age 20 with back-to-back major victories at the 1922 U.S. Open and PGA Championship. Like Jones earlier in his career, “The Squire” was known for losing his temper, frequently tossing clubs on the course.
A major in the British army, Scotland’s Armour came out of the war blinded in one eye, but nevertheless decided to make professional golf his work. After immigrating to the U.S. in 1921, “The Silver Scot” won three majors – the 1927 U.S. Open, 1930 PGA and 1931 British Open. Running in the same social circles, Hagen and Armour were equally eccentric characters with reputations for carousing and drinking.
Local hero H.R. “Jimmy” Johnston of St. Paul had won the U.S. Amateur the previous summer at Pebble Beach and was the best choice for a local winner. Johnston, a 33-year old investment banker, played three practice rounds with Jones and took him fishing on Lake Minnetonka for some reprise from the heat. But Johnston’s erratic play in the practice rounds with Jones proved to be an unfortunate foreshadowing to his missing the cut. During those practice rounds, the Minneapolis Star (July 7, 1930) reported, “Jimmy Johnston is sure off his game. The national amateur star couldn’t hit his tee shots straight to save his neck. Jimmy was in trouble with a wild hook.”
The Main Event
First Round – Thursday, July 10
Macdonald Smith and Armour shared the first-round lead at 2-under par 70, both playing in the excruciating afternoon heat. According to Frost, Armour sent for a bag of ice after four holes that he used to cool himself before each shot. Jones and Wilfred “Whiffy” Cox shot 71s and Hagen and Horton Smith were among five players at 72. But the heat took its toll. Kidd, who was exempt to compete as host professional, shot 77, and Johnston shot 80, dashing hopes for a local winner. It was so hot that Jones’ tie had to be cut from his neck because it could not be unknotted from the perspiration. It even drove Hagen to declare that, for the first time in his competitive career, he would wear a hat the next day.
Second Round – Friday, July 11
As described by Frost, players and spectators enjoyed more-tolerable temperatures on the second day. Macdonald Smith put on a great display, including making an eagle on the par-5 ninth hole with Jones looking on from the middle of the fairway in the following group. When the green cleared and cheering quieted, Jones addressed his “spoon” (3-wood) to go for the green in two. But young girls moving in the gallery caused him to flinch and top his second shot. According to many spectators, his ball remarkably skipped across the pond and bounded off a lily pad to dry land. He got up and down from just beyond the pond for a birdie to stay within a stroke of Smith after 27 holes. Jones’ “lily pad shot” remains a significant part of Interlachen’s folklore.
Macdonald Smith played better than Jones on the back nine, following a bogey on the 10th hole with eight pars to shoot 70. Jones finished with a 73 that included a double-bogey on No. 15. Smith had the 36-hole lead (72-70--142). Jones, Harry Cooper and Charles Lacey were two strokes behind at 144 and Horton Smith was at 145. Sixty-nine players made the cut at 156. Kidd struggled to an 81 to miss the cut by two. The Minneapolis Star (July 12, 1930) proclaimed, “Willie Kidd was disgusted with his showing. The Mirror Lakes pro was trying too hard.” Johnston added an 81 to his first-round 80 and also missed the cut.
Third and Fourth Rounds – Saturday, July 12
The final 36 holes were played in a welcome rain. Jones started hot with a 3-under-par 33 on the first nine, which was par 36 because the first hole was played as a par 4. Jones shot 35 on the back nine for a 68 to take a five-stroke lead over Cooper as second-round leaders faded. Jones’ famous putter, “Calamity Jane,” produced 11 one-putt greens. Even though Jones’ 68 was his lowest ever in an Open, a 66 was in sight until bogeys on 17 and 18.
News of Jones’ 68 deflated his opponents. “Jones cut loose with a touch of psychology which was at least partially responsible for his retaining the Open title,” reported the Minneapolis Star (July 14, 1930). “Word rapidly passed back to those contenders behind him, and these tidings most assuredly exerted a decided effect. Particularly was this true of Horton Smith. Told that Jones had shot a 68 just as he mounted the 10th tee, Smith hit the toboggan and needed 40 strokes to come in with a 76 after going out with a 36. When you hear that man of Jones’ supernatural talent shoots 68, it inspires a ‘what’s the use’ attitude more often than not.”
After Jones’ masterful morning round, many assumed his victory was a foregone conclusion. The New York Times (July 13, 1930) reported: “And so, when Jones began his final round, it looked more like a romp than anything else. It was just as if he were playing an exhibition match.” However, Jones made it interesting, making double bogeys on three par-3 holes, including No. 17.
The 17th hole was Jones’ nemesis: It led to a bogey-bogey finish in his otherwise brilliant third round and nearly cost him the tournament in the final round after a double bogey. In the final round, after Jones hit his tee shot right, the ball was not found near the edge of the pond. However, USGA Official George Herbert Walker, grandfather of President George H.W. Bush, ruled that the ball was assumed to be in the lake and thus was played as a lateral hazard with a one-stroke penalty rather than played as a stroke-and-distance penalty from the tee, the result of a lost-ball ruling. The ruling was debated for years and believed by many to mistakingly have been favorable to Jones. But his birdie on the last hole gave him a two-stroke margin of victory and helped erase any doubt about the ruling.
Jones followed each of the three double bogeys on par-3 holes with birdies, including on the 72nd hole with an improbable 40-foot birdie putt that gave him the two-shot victory over Smith. Interlachen members know the extreme difficulty and rarity of making this putt from the front of arguably the most-severe green on the course over a significant mound to a back-hole location. Given the stage, it was one of the greatest putts in Open history. Jones’ quest was so momentous that fellow competitors Johnston and Hagen followed him during the final round. In photographs and newsreels of the round, thousands of people are shown surrounding the 18th green and fairway and climbing the fence over Edina Boulevard to watch Jones’ historic victory.
The emotional and physical strain and extreme heat caused Jones to lose 17 pounds during the week. Exhausted, he caught a train Saturday night to Atlanta, where he was greeted as a national hero. The following Monday, a Bobby Jones holiday was declared in Atlanta. Most businesses closed and Atlantans welcomed him with a parade and gave him a gold key to the city. Jones then had a much-needed respite of more than a month before the final leg of the Grand Slam, the U.S. Amateur at Merion Golf & Cricket Club in Philadelphia.
 1930 US Open - Bobby Jones 9th Green |
Slamming the Door
The media expected Jones to complete the Grand Slam with a victory at the U.S. Amateur at Merion in September because there were no professionals in the field. One writer even conceded the title to Jones because only three amateurs had ever defeated him – Andrew Jamieson at the 1926 British Amateur, George Von Elm in the final of the 1926 U.S. Amateur and Johnny Goodman at the 1929 U.S. Amateur. However, Jones still faced a difficult challenge because the tournament was match play and he would have to survive 36 holes of qualifying and win five matches.
Jones did just that to complete the Grand Slam. He remains the only golfer to win four major championships in a single year. Those events have changed over time and today consist of the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship. Tiger Woods came close to matching Jones’ feat, winning both Open championships and the PGA in 2000 and the Masters the following spring.
Even more extraordinary is what happened next. On November 17, 1930, just 52 days after winning at Merion, Jones surprised everyone by announcing his retirement from tournament golf. He had made his intentions clear in a letter to Herbert Ramsey, vice president of the USGA, who then distributed it to the press: “Fourteen years of intense tournament play in this country and abroad have given me all I wanted in the way of hard work in the game. I have reached the point where I felt that my profession required more of my time and effort, leaving golf in its proper place, as a means of obtaining recreation and enjoyment.” The Associated Press reported, “There are no more golfing worlds left to conquer for this 28-year old citizen-lawyer of Atlanta, Ga., who made his final triumph look so ridiculously easy that the wonder is he hasn't been doing this sort of thing every year since he first began to scale the height.” Interlachen forever will be linked to Jones’ monumental feat.
Written by Christine Geer Dean
 1930 US Open - Bobby Jones 10th Tee |
 1930 US Open - Closing Ceremonies |