The Grand Slam: Bobby Jones, America, and the Story of Golf

by Mark Frost

Overview

This Los Angeles Times bestseller takes a riveting look at the life and times of depression-era golf legend Bobby Jones.

In the wake of the stock market crash and the dawn of the Great Depression, a ray of light emerged from the world of sports in the summer of 1930. Bobby Jones, a 28-year-old amateur golfer, mounted a campaign against the record books. In four months, he conquered the British Amateur Championship, the British Open, the United States Open, and finally the United States Amateur Championship, an achievement so extraordinary that writers dubbed it the Grand Slam. No one has ever repeated it.

Mark Frost uses a wealth of original research to provide an unprecedented intimate portrait of golf great Bobby Jones. In the tradition of The Greatest Game Ever Played, The Grand Slam blends social history with sports biography, captivating the imagination and engaging the reader. The Grand Slam is a biography not to be missed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781401307516
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	09/01/2005
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	514
Sales rank:	160,841
Product dimensions:	5.19(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	13 - 18 Years

About the Author

Mark Frost is the author of the critically acclaimed The Greatest Game Ever Played, The Grand Slam, and the bestselling The List of 7, The 6 Messiahs, and Before I Wake. He received a Writer's Guild Award and an Emmy nomination for his work as executive story editor on the acclaimed television series Hill Street Blues, and was the co-creator and executive producer of the ABC television series Twin Peaks. He lives in Los Angeles and upstate New York.

Table of Contents

	The Players	ix
	Prologue	xiii
Part 1	Evolution of a Genius
Chapter 1	East Lake	3
Chapter 2	One Wrong Turn	31
Chapter 3	Into the Fray	49
Chapter 4	Finding a Voice	81
Chapter 5	Fate and Nothing Else	125
Part 2	The Championship Years
Chapter 6	Breakthrough	177
Chapter 7	Halfway There	205
Chapter 8	The Battle of the Century	223
Chapter 9	The Americans Are Coming	247
Chapter 10	The Double	267
Chapter 11	Consolidation	283
Chapter 12	Preparation	317
Part 3	The Grand Slam
Chapter 13	The Amateur, St. Andrews	335
Chapter 14	The Open, Hoylake	367
Chapter 15	The U.S. Open, Interlachen	385
Chapter 16	The U.S. Amateur, Merion	415
Chapter 17	Retirement	443
Chapter 18	Decline	461
	Acknowledgments	479
	A Note on the Writing	481
	Index	483

Editorial Reviews

In the summer of 1930, American golfer Bobby Jones mounted a historic assault on the record books. In a four-month tear, he won the British Amateur, the British Open, the United States Open, and the United States Amateur championships. And then, at the age of 28, he retired. Mark Frost, the author of The Greatest Game Ever Played, tells the story of the most dominant golfer in history.

Using his instinct for character development to delve into Jones' psyche, Frost identifies what makes Jones interesting and startlingly contemporary.

Sports Illustrated

If you thought you knew the story of Bobby Jones . . ., then think again: this book is the engrossingly definitive account.

Scottish Golf Magazine

With clear, crisp prose Frost does a great job of bringing Jones' assault on the Grand Slam back to life.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Before Arnold, Jack and Tiger, there was Bobby. After winning the Grand Slam of golf in 1930, Jones stood like a colossus over the American sporting scene. He is the only individual to have been recognized with two ticker tape parades down Broadway's Canyon of Heroes. Frost (The Greatest Game Ever Played) has written a swift, surefooted account of Jones's remarkable life and career. From Jones's precocious early days on the Atlanta links to his sudden retreat from the media spotlight, Frost covers every detail. The self-taught Jones began playing serious tournaments at 14 and quickly moved into the ranks of the world's best players. In 1930, he won the four major tournaments of the time: the British Amateur, the British Open, the U.S. Open and the U.S. Amateur, which sportswriters dubbed the Grand Slam. Following this success, Jones promptly retired. Later diagnosed with a rare nerve illness, he lived out his life as golf's elder statesman. While Frost's eager prose has an engaging, "you are there" quality, for nongolfers the question is whether they actually do want to be there. Frost strains to place Jones's achievement in the broader context of American history. As bedside reading for the literate duffer, this is a hole in one. For the average reader, it's a bogey. 15 b&w photos. Agent, Ed Victor. (Nov.) Forecast: The Greatest Game (2002) was praised widely, and cross-promos with the USGA and golfing events could help this new book gain traction among Frost's readers. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Decades later, the name Bobby Jones says it all: a legend. His "grand slam" (winning the Open Championship, British Amateur, U.S. Open, and U.S. Amateur) in 1930 has yet to be duplicated. Frost's current work follows his own The Greatest Game Ever Played, a historical recounting of Jones's predecessors in modern golf: Harry Vardon and Francis Ouimet. Frost does a fine job of recounting the tenor of the times-the economics (the Great Depression), baseball (Babe Ruth and the Sox and Yankees), politics, and life in general. He also chronicles the emergence of influential sportswriters. As a biography, this allows the opportunity to see a Jones with flaws: club-throwing, quick-tongued, a middling real estate salesman. At the same time, Frost shows Jones as a complex person of single-mindedness, honesty, and piety. While not the last biography of Jones, this one is very well done. Highly recommended for all sports collections.-Steven Silkunas, North Wales, PA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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