 This is Jimmy Powers ready to bring you another story from the tumult and the shouting There this is Jimmy Powers transcribed with another chapter from the Grantland rice story the tumult and the shouting today granny Takes us back to Atlanta, Georgia where granny watched a 13-year-old youngster swing a golf stick It also began an association that was to endure right up to granny's farewell in July 1954 so with a warm salute to the every young spirit of granny rice I take up the narrative in first person One lovely spring day in 1915 I stood with Alex Smith and long Jim Barnes both golf champions watching a 13-year-old kid playing a mashy shot to the green The youngster hit a good crisp shot to within ten yards of the cup Immediately he threw his club and discussed Barnes's eyes opened who is that boy? He asked His name is Jones Bob Jones. I replied. I've known him since he was a three-year-old He's the son of a good friend of mine Bob Jones senior a fine lawyer here in Atlanta I played baseball against him while he was at Mercer University, and I was at Vanderbilt It's a shame Alex said but he'll never make a golfer too much temper. Why that was a fine shot for anybody. I Disagree said Barnes this kid will be one of the world's greatest in a few more years Look at him broad-shouldered with big strong hands I've got to agree with you Jim. I said at 13. He's already playing low in the 70s He isn't satisfied with just a good shot. He wants it to be perfect stone dead He has a great ambition to play every shot in the bag right But you're correct about that temper Alex and that one fault could prove his biggest hazard If he can't learn to control it, he'll never play the kind of golf. He'll be capable of shooting When Bobby was five he started swinging a golf club His family lived just off the 13th fairway at Atlantis Eastlake course at the age of seven He was swinging a mid-iron with better form than the average club champ Who started him himself? But the fellow he often pestered was the club professional Stuart Maiden Bobby would watch Maiden impart his wisdom to a pupil then go off to one side and practice The boy had a large head on a smallish body and the head served as a perfect anchor for those shots That later would flow so flawlessly from his club head as a result by the time the kid was 12 He had hung up a 70 at Eastlake He had grown from a rather sickly-looking kid into a chunky broad-shouldered youth with thick powerful wrists and big strong hands at 12 he could drive 240 or 250 yards When Jones arrived at Philadelphia's Marion golf club for his first crack at the amateur title in 1916 he was 14 and a half years old I was then 36 and writing my column for the New York Tribune syndicate having left the New York mail in 1913 at the invitation of mr. Ogden Reed's offer of $280 a week Bob and I had breakfast together the morning of his first match round having qualified the previous day with a miserable 90 He was to meet even buyers a sound golfer and a former amateur champion in 1916 10 years earlier Buyers also hot-tempered wasn't adverse to wrapping his own hickory shafts around the neck of the nearest tree. I Mentioned this to Bob. I Recall one hole particularly in the battle of tempers that followed it must have been the fifth Buyers was straight down the middle Jones hooked away off the fairway into deep rough after a short delay buyers hit his second shot and started walking ahead Jones deep in the rough called out for mr. Buyers I'm sorry buyers responded. I thought you had picked up picked up snorted Jones. You just watch this one The recovery shot stopped about four feet from the cup for a birdie That was a large measure of satisfaction for the hot-blooded Georgia kid He won three and one because as Jones put it later buyers ran out of clubs first That evening after finishing my overnight Those Georgia papers were thirsty for Jones copy. I had my own qualms about Bob's going very far He had all the shots, but his temper was on the verge of throwing him Next day, however a self-control strong will Jones went out and defeated Frank Dyer four and two And it was this round that earned him the first of the tremendous galleries that were to become a Jones trademark Bobby was eliminated in the third round by the defending champion Bob Gardner on the 31st green a Year later in 1917 young Bob and his Atlanta pal Perry Adair were sent north to play several war relief charity matches in and around New York City Bob's dad wrote ahead asking me to sort of keep an eye on the youngsters kid Of course insisted they stay at our apartment at 450 Riverside Drive One evening. I took the entire brood to Coney Island a great trip. We didn't miss a ride It was during their stay that Bob and I became acquainted in a way few persons with a gap of 20 odd years between them ever do All of Bob's friends during the early years his dad Obey Keeler his ever faithful Boswell and myself among others had admonished Bob concerning his temper But it took the British open of 1921 to expose it to Jones in a manner. He never forgot He had committed the unpardonable Transgression of picking up his ball and thought of it rankled him throughout the next nine years Years incidentally when the Bobby Jones department remained at a magnificent standard If temper had been Bobby Jones's major flaw a minor one concerned his diet his Appetite between morning and afternoon rounds was voracious a fighter football player even a baseball star With the eternal exception of Babe Ruth goes light on the chow going into battle. I Remarked as much to Bob. Nevertheless. He continued to cover the noon menu pretty well including his pie a la mode During those on trial years leading into the open in 1923 at the Inwood course on Long Island He was being beaten off in the final rounds more often than not and Jones was becoming a touch fatalistic about those defeats Nuts to fate I replied when he mentioned the subject following his thumping at the terrifically hot hands of Jess Sweetster in The 1922 amateur at Brookline, Massachusetts You eat like a ditch digger at noon and then wonder why you don't have that extra feel in the afternoon Many a hearty lunch has cost thousands of golfers a good round later on However, I believe it was Bob's closest confident Oh be keeler who convinced Jones that a drastic switch in his noon meal might mean more than a hot putter From 1923 the year he won the open for the first major title until the end eight years later Jones stuck to a lunch of crackers and milk during that span in which he picked up 13 major titles It was strictly a case of Jones against the field Looking back on the Bob Jones story there were in my opinion two critical shots on which his entire career hinged The first came at Inwood Long Island in the 1923 open as I said the big ones had been escaping him somehow And he was giving serious thought to law and the practice with his father's firm The open field was a roaring good one and at the end of 72 holes Jones and Bobby crook shank were tied Crook shank was a 10 to 7 favorite in the playoff What a match attack attack Hitting into a headwind Bobby crook shank tried to keep the ball quail high below the breeze He hit a half-top drive that hooked into the rough Jones's drive was long and hugged the right side finally landing in a soft spot at the edge of the rough Crook shank then played the only possible shot a recovery short of the lagoon guarding the green What to do? Should Jones play it safe from his own poor lie and shoot for a tie on the hole and bank on wearing down his little adversary and extra holes or Should he give it the big gamble going all out to win or lose the title on the strength of one attacking shot Bob studied the ball a moment before grabbing his midiron a treacherous club even on a good lie The club flashed back and down the club head tore into the ball It drill straight into the swarming storm clouds a speck of white arrowing over the lagoon and drilling onto the green 190 yards away then up up to within five feet of the cup That settled it Bob Jones open champion was on the way The other vital shot a putt occurred six years later in the 1929 open at Mamaronec, New York Jones was leading Al Espinosa by four strokes with four holes to go Then Bob blew Sprinkling sevens around like Rockefeller with a pocket full of dimes at the 72nd hole He needed a four for a tie jittery He left himself a mean 12 foot side hill putt with the angel of doom looking over his shoulder Jones took his calamity Jane putter stroked the ball and made it If I'd missed that putt To drop what had been a four-stroke lead and the tournament said Bob that evening I hate to think of what might have happened to my confidence and without confidence a golfer is little more than a hacker Next day in the 36 hole playoff with Espinosa Jones won by 23 strokes Well, that's our transcribed story for today and now this is Jimmy Powers inviting you to join us again next week And until then the mostest of the bestest