Golf exhibit honors Jones

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – The words beneath the life-size image of Bobby Jones in full swing say all that is needed to properly introduce golf’s iconic amateur.

“Perhaps it is best simply to say that just as there was a touch of poetry to his golf, so there was always a certain definite magic about the man himself,” it reads.

Those words, from famed scribe Herbert Warren Wind, welcome visitors to a new exhibit at the World Golf Hall of Fame honoring Jones and the 75th anniversary of his sweep of golf’s four Grand Slam events in 1930.

On display through the end of the year, the exhibit for the first time in history brings together the trophies from the Open Championship, Amateur Championship, U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur, which were swept by Jones in what then almost clumsily was dubbed as the “impregnable quadrilateral.”

Also included is the trophy for the Walker Cup, the amateur equivalent of the Ryder Cup. Jones captained the U.S. team to victory in 1930 in England.

The trip, paid for by the United States Golf Association, enabled Jones to stay and compete in the British Amateur and Open, setting up a sweep not matched in history.

Jones won 13 major championships and had finished first or second in 80 percent of the majors in which he played by the time he left the game at age 28.