Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-21

hoodoo which prevents business
"/ men from starting projects
on the third day after the 10th
of the month, causes auto racing
drivers to writhe in mental agony when they
find themselves trailing the twelfth in
speed carnival and influences architects to
omit the thirteenth floor when designing
modern SkyScraper hotels, strike down upon
Bobby Jones and deny him the 1880 amateur
golfing championship of the United States dur
ing the play of the coming week?
Starting Tuesday, Jones and the rest of the
amateur field, representing the greataest group
of Simon-pure linkSmen America boasts, will
begin play on the famous Merton course, in
Philadelphia. Thirty-two will qualify for the
match play rounds. Should Jones' Atlanta's
outstanding citizen. perform at the pace set
thus far this season, he will be one of the two
finasts teeing off next Saturday morning
{ he defeats his adversary it will mean the
thirteenth major title the distinguished
Georgian has garnered since he began collect
ing first-grade championships eight years ago.
:. will be his fifth national amateur crown
to add to a string which includes four United
States open diadems. one British amateur and
three British open titles. 1t will mean that
Bobby JONES' for the first time in the golf an
nails of the world, is posSeSSor simultaneously
of the four most important links baubles that
exist-the British amateur and open and the
American open anad amateur of 1880.
Today with both British crowns and the
American open under his belt, the Emperor
Jones has compiled a record that never has
been matched. If, on Saturday of this week.
he also anneXes the 1880 national amateur, he
will have made record that may never be
equaled.
DERHAPS Old Man Jinx has decided Jones'
present remarkable achievement for
single years competition is quite sufficient Per-
haps he has decided IL ma jor titles during a
career are enough for human being-re-
gardless of how great golfer that person may
be. If the fates so decide this years amateur
will be repetition of the 1929 event, in which
Jones went down to defeat in an early round,
thereby robbing the tournament of a major
part of its color and interest
II the psychology of environment has any
thing to do with it, Jones will play invincible
golf in the impending links jousting. Just
IA years ago Merton was the scene of Bobbys
first major play. He eliminated in the
third round. In 1924 he returned to Merton
Jones coming back to Merton will be like a
traveller, long away, returning home. Why
shouldn't he play inspired golf?
Sports writers will discuss that first major
tournament of Jones long after Bonny King
Bobby has retired to his Georgia law practice.
He was only IA years of age; he was Georgia
State amateur champion; he wearing his
first pair of long trouSerS-donned. as he con-
fessed with blush beneath his TAM because
he felt it would add air of maturity-Bobby
was painfully aware of his youth in those days;
he was copy" of the type sports writer's grow
grayhaired locating and running down.
dc surprised even himself by qualifying with
the respectable score of 1863 Next day, the
first of match play. Bobby defeated Frank
Dyer That night the hotel room where Bobby
stopping with his father, one-time base
ball star at the University of Georgia, was
besieged by Scribes.
They learned that Bobby like many an
atk,I uyIao hos cd tIp
forced into sports activity by i'll health. Up
to 5 years of age the boy never had managed
a morseI of solid food, due to faulty digestive
apparatus They learned how Fulton Colville
had given Bobby his first set of secondhand
sticks; how Bobby and neighbor boys laid out
a four-hole course in the yard of Mrs. Frank
Mc3dor where Jones Senior had taken his
family when told that suburban life might
benefit his sons health; they learned how
Stewart Maiden, pro at the nearby East Lake
course. had been Bobby's inspiration and links
i'd
4 day the Jones kid eliminated E. M
Byers He fell himself the following afternoon,
bowling 10 the defending champion Robert
Gardner But the Kid Wonder" from Atlanta
had made his mark in the golfing world He
has been a figure in it, more or less wildly
limned as the fateS Willed, ever since
A. - Jones won his first major competition,
the American open, defeating Bobby Cruick-
shank in an 19-hole playof, 76 TO 73. AT %,
visiting Merton the second time, Jones landed
his first American amateur crown, defeating
George Won Elm in the final, 9 and g. before
a gallery of 5000 fans.
The world is SO we'll versed on jones sub
sequent links record there is no need to des-
cribc il in detail. Suffice it TO say, he captured
his third major title in 1925, the American
amat eur; won his fourth in 1926 by annexing
his first British open and followed that with
his fifth when once more he took the American
In no tiSh
open and the American amateur. In 1928 he