A SON OF BOBBY JONES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 121, 24 May 1941, Page 4 (Supplement)

A SON OF BOBBY JONES

(By GRANTLAND RICE)

STANDING under a purple canopy of wistaria, not overlooking the pink and white boarding of dogwood and peach blosoms, at Augusta recently, we ran into a young fellow by the name of Bobby Jones, aged 14. He was working out then for his first high school golf tournament to be played at Chattanooga next week. In a flash your correspondent was carried back a matter of 25 years to the time when his father was just starting to early fame that will never be forgotten.

I recall the young Bobby Jones of 1916 at Merion when he also was only fourteen years old, the first kid wizard. The young Bobby Jones of 1941 is much taller than his stocky dad. Young Bob is up around six feet, weighing 180 pounds or more. Father and son started their careers in entirely different fashions. The older Bob knew nothing but golf as a kid, from eight years on. Every muscle in his body was a golf muscle, trained for the purpose of swinging onlv wood and iron. He played no other game and at the age of ten was in the low 70's. His son, young Bobby of to-day, started out in baseball and football. He had no taste for golf. I remember a few years ago taking Babe Ruth out to call on the two Bobbys. That afternoon young Bobby, then aged nine, had hammered oivt two home runs. He brought in his friends and the Babe gave them all a lesson in home run hitting. Young Bobby, trying to introduce Ruth to his kid pals, waved his arms in a series of circles, choked up, and finally, pointing to the Babe, said: "There he is." Baseball, Football Up to the age of twelve young Bobby stuck to baseball and football. Two years ago he played a round of golf, and the bug bit him badly. A big, powerfully-built youngster, he could hit the ball a long way—but in many directions.

"I've taken lessons from two or three professionals," he told me at | Augusta, i "How about your old man?" I asked. "I took one from dad," young Bobby said. "How did it come out?" I asked. Fourteen-year-old Bobby was slow in answering. Finally he said, "I don't think we spoke for two days." Old Bob, aged 3D, has never believed in father and son instruction. He has never wanted his boy to be a top-flight golfer, just as Dev Milburn has never wanted his two sons to be top-flight polo players. They know the price you pay for the peak. And it isn't cheap. Young Bobby, naturally, is just a fair golfer, with less than two years' experience. He can break SO—and he can also slip above 90. The day I ran across young Bobby at Augusta he had picked up an eagle on a 500-yard hole, plus two birdies. But he was over 90. He was more interested in the eagle than in the score. Young Bobby is on the quiet side, shy side, like his father, and also an excellent student. Whether he has the grim determination and the concentrative genius of his old man is something else. And these are the main foundations of winning golf. Also, at the age of 14 young Bobby hasn't the fiery temperament his dad j had at the same age, when he could heave a recalcitrant putter further I than most duffers can drive.