Peter Kessler

July 18, 2006

Golfobserver.Com is very happy to have Peter Kessler join our staff with monthly stories. Kessler, who has a daily radio show on XM from 8 to 9am Monday through Friday, will give us a monthly look at a bygone era of golf.

Today with the British Open returning to Hoylake, Kessler looks at Bobby Jones great victory in 1930.

- GolfObserver editors

Bobby Jones and Hoylake

In the grand slam summer of 1930, Bobby Jones won the amateur and open championships of Great Britain and the United States, a feat he had contemplated and meticulously planned in 1926. Although it was widely considered that Jones was a wealthy young man, money was so tight Jones, his wife Mary and their first child still lived with his parents when Jones was twenty six years old in 1928. The 1926 Walker Cup was played in Great Britain and would next return there in 1930. Jones couldn't afford annual trips to Great Britain and wasn't able to defend the open championships he won there in 1926 and '27.

The planned slam of the major championships started with the one championship he had never won-the British Amateur-the championship that Jones considered the most difficult of the four to win because the champion had to beat eight opponents to claim the title. 1930 was the year to pull it off as the Walker Cup committee would pay his expenses to cross the ocean.

Bobby Jones began his quest to annex the four great championships in the confines of a single season in an unusual manner-he exercised for the first time in his life and warmed up for the supreme championship task by tuning his game in two professional tournaments, one of which he lost by a shot and the other which he won by thirteen. On the stage of an abandoned theatre in Atlanta he played a game in the winter of 1929-'30 called Doug, so named after his silent film star friend Douglas Fairbanks. It was a combination of badminton and tennis and helped keep his weight down and his legs strong.

Bobby Jones in action during the 1930 British Open at Hoylake

Jones' first Amateur Championship appearance took place at Hoylake in 1921. He was just nineteen years old and as magnificent a ball striker as he would ever be though not yet as great a player of matches or medal rounds as he would be. Distinct from a healthy temper he would later learn to control there was not a more fascinating player to watch. Bernard Darwin wrote ’ there was nothing hurried or slapdash about it and the swing itself, if not positively slow, had a certain drowsy beauty which gave the feeling of slowness.’ His career in the amateur was brief and undistinguished in that first go at Hoylake. Jones got through his first match with Mr. Manford, a fine Scottish player, and he shot nearer to 90 than 80 when he beat Mr Hamlet in the second round. He beat Robert Harris in the third and was trounced by Allan Graham in the fourth.

When he returned to Hoylake in 1930 he was the greatest player in the game. He had won ten major championships including three U.S. Opens, two Opens, four U.S. amateurs and the Amateur Championship , the last just days before at The Old Course at St. Andrews. It seemed as though every man, woman and child had turned out to see the semi-final between Jones and the magnificent Cyril Tolley. So deserted was the town of St. Andrews that afternoon that Gerald Farley set the scene of one of his murder mysteries as the match was being played. Jones beat Tolley in 37 holes and then hammered Roger Wethered in the final to start the slam.

Bobby Joneswith the "Jug" after winning the 1930 British Open.

The second stage at Hoylake was won by sheer hard work-just as it had been in the amateur. Jones' swing was off and he won by saving most of his full shots from ruin with his soft, fast hands and perfect timing. So off form was Jones that Tolley later asked him if he had ever won before while playing such poor golf. Jones assured him this was the worst golf he had ever played while winning championships.

Jones started quickly at Hoylake with a round of 70 which gave him the lead. He added a 72 and a 74 to leave him a shot behind Archie Compston who wilted in the final round with a woeful 82. For seven holes in the last 18 Jones played precisely according to plan, but on the 8th hole, the Far Hole, Bobby came unglued. Normally two shots and a wee pitch to the five par were all he needed but he took five shots from the edge of the green for a devastating seven. No penalty strokes and no bunkers and a swift and cruel blow.

Jones was certain with five holes to play that he needed five 4's to win-he couldn't think of a finishing stretch in championship golf more difficult to close with a series of 4's than the last five at Hoylake. He finished with 75 and paced the clubhouse holding a drink in two hands waiting for the jury to come in - the jury being Mac Smith who finished two behind. That was the last competitive round in Great Britain for the 28 year old Jones. It didn't matter to those who saw him win at Hoylake that they missed the fireworks in America-he had departed Hoylake in a blaze of glory.