E.F. Storey, 1924 British Amateur runner-up - "During my life I have seen all the great players of their time playing fairly well: Vardon, John Ball, Travers, Chick Evans, the lot. No one was comparable to Jones, not even Jack Nicklaus."

Bob Jones was born in Atlanta on St. Patrick's Day, 1902 -- the year following Queen Victoria's death and preceding the flight of the Wright brothers. At the age of five, he was stricken in succession with whooping cough and measles and his parents moved him for the summer to East Lake, some six miles east of downtown Atlanta. The East Lake Golf Club, a branch of the greater Atlanta Athletic Club, opened that same year (1907). By the following summer, six-year-old Jones competed for and won his first tournament defeating Miss Alexa Stirling who would go on to win three U.S. Women's Amateur titles, finish as runner-up three times and win the Canadian Women's Amateur title twice. He said it was the proudest trophy of his life and the only one with which he ever slept. East Lake was the foundation for Jones's competitive performance. It was here he first played; and here he played last. At East Lake, he watched the renowned Ted Ray play "the greatest shot" he ever saw. As a child, he relentlessly followed club professional Stewart Maiden, the Scotsman after whom he patterned his effortless and relentless swing, around the course watching closely but never taking a lesson.

At the age of 14, he entered the world of national competition making the third round of his first U.S. Amateur. In the same year (1916), he won the Georgia Amateur for the first time.

From the age of 14, until his retirement from competitive golf at 28, Jones played in 52 tournaments of which he won 23. During these 14 years of competing for major championships, Jones was a high school or college student for nine years. He graduated from high school at age 16; attained his first college degree [Engineering] at 20, his second [English Literature] at 22; and passed the Georgia Bar examination after just two years of law school. He authored four books and numerous newspaper and magazine articles. In his first ten attempts, Jones did not win a national championship -- then came 1923.

1923-1930:

Jones won 13 of the 21 national championships he entered during this eight-year stretch. He held one or more major titles in each of these years. He won five of eight U.S. Amateur Championships. He won four of the eight U.S. Opens played in this period and finished second three times. (He also finished second in 1922.) In 1925, he called a penalty on himself costing him the U.S. Open championship. Jones entered three British Opens during this span and won all three. He entered two British Amateur Championships winning one.

No amateur ever beat him twice in match play. Professionals Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen never won a U.S. Open or British Open in which Jones competed during these eight years. In 1923, ineligible to play collegiate sports because he had already graduated for the first time, he volunteered as assistant manager for the Harvard University golf team. He was, at the time, the reigning U.S. Open champion.

In 1926, he became the first person to win the U.S. Open and the British Open in the same year for which he received his first New York ticker-tape parade.

In 1930, he became the first, and remains the only, person to win the U.S. Open, the British Open, the British Amateur and the U.S. Amateur for which he received his second ticker-tape parade. He is the only person to have received two New York ticker-tape parades.

Following his 1930 U.S. Amateur victory and the completion of the Grand Slam at Merion Cricket Club near Philadelphia, a line of 50 Marines was needed to escort him through the 18,000 spectators -- a jaunt described in The New York Times as "the most triumphant journey any man ever travelled in sport."

Following The Grand Slam:

Jones retired from competitive golf immediately following his victories in 1930. Until his death in 1971, he continued to devote himself to the game and to be honored by it. In 1930, he contracted with Warner Brothers for instructional films which were viewed by millions the following year.

In 1931, along with Alister Mackenzie, he began the design and construction of Augusta National Golf Club. He designed the first matched set of flanged irons in 1932. Two years later, he inaugurated the first Augusta National Invitational Tournament -- later to be called The Masters. During World War II, Jones served in the European theater as an intelligence officer in the Army Air Corps. In 1958, he was awarded the Freedom of St. Andrews. Benjamin Franklin is the only other American to be so honored. Bob Jones died in his sleep at home in Atlanta on December 18, 1971.