A good reason to celebrate Bobby Jones

In a post last week I voiced concern about the potential for the legacy of Arnold Palmer to slowly fade into the background of the golf world. That doesn’t seem remotely possible during this week of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, where tributes and remembrances of the golf icon are being issued constantly in respect to his death last September.

Bobby Jones did a special Masters memory piece for the April 1960 Golf Digest.

But complacency, sloppy or deliberate misinformation, and the march of time can make anyone’s legacy foggy. I’d say it’s the passage of time that is most harmful to our golfing legends. In my 30 years as a golf journalist, we have gone from regularly bringing Bobby Jones, Gene Sarazen, Walter Hagen, and Snead-Hogan-Nelson into discussions about how they fit in with today’s game to they barely get a mention, lost among modern-day techno talk and fascination with how equipment has turned today’s player into super-human distance producers. If the golf population under 30 could pass a test on the feats of the aforementioned golf heroes it would be a welcome surprise.

Which brings us to the chance to celebrate the man who at one time was renowned in the sporting world as much as Babe Ruth. March 17, St. Patrick’s Day, is the birthday of Bobby Jones. He was born 115 years ago, became a golfing prodigy, won 13 majors total, including the Grand Slam in 1930, then retired at age 28 to move onto creating the Augusta National Golf Club and Masters Tournament in the early 1930s. In a few weeks he will receive plenty of attention as the Masters is played, and those who fight hard to preserve the game’s history will be glad he gets an annual push back into the golf conscience.

Whether Jones is the greatest golfer of all-time isn’t debated as much as it once was. Jack Nicklaus now firmly gets that label from most quarters by virtue of leading the major championship race, but equipment advances, particularly the ball, make it hard to compare players of different eras anyway. What we can do, with certainty, is proclaim golfers the best of their time in history—that’s all a player can do—and Jones is unquestionably the best of his.

So, Happy 115th Birthday Bobby Jones. May your memory and that of the many legends prior to the current crop of players remain focal points of the overall golf picture.