Bobby Jones

College

Georgia Tech

Hall of Fame

⭐ World Golf Hall of Fame

Robert Tyre "Bobby" Jones Jr. was born on March 17, 1902, in Atlanta, Georgia, and grew up near the East Lake Golf Club, which his family joined when he was six years old. A child prodigy who entered Georgia Tech at age 15, Jones went on to earn a law degree from Emory University and never turned professional — playing competitive golf entirely as an amateur while practicing law in Atlanta. In a competitive career that spanned only 14 years (1916–1930), he won 13 major championships: five U.S. Amateurs, four U.S. Opens, three British Opens, and one British Amateur. In 1930 — the final year of his competitive career — Jones accomplished the "Grand Slam," winning all four major championships of the era (U.S. Open, British Open, U.S. Amateur, British Amateur) in a single calendar year, an achievement no golfer in any subsequent era has fully replicated. He retired from competition at age 28, citing the immense physical and emotional toll the game exacted from him. In 1934 he co-founded the Augusta National Golf Club with Clifford Roberts and created the Masters Tournament, which remains one of the four modern major championships and arguably the most prestigious event in golf. Bobby Jones is widely regarded as the greatest amateur golfer who ever lived and one of the most gentlemanly competitors in sports history — known for calling penalties on himself even when no one else was watching. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974 as a charter member. Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia.