Speaking of Sports

By John Fragodt, Sports Reporter

I was reading a book the other day about Bobby Jones, one of the top golfers of all time who competed on the amateur golf scene in the 1920s, eventually retiring after winning the “Grand Slam” of golf at the time in 1930.  Jones was a tremendous golfer, no doubt, but he also hated dealing with the stress of golf, especially when it came to competing in top-level tournaments.  It was said that he would lose 15-25 pounds each tournament due to stress.

When he was out playing with friends, he was basically unbeatable, but when he competed in tournaments, you never knew what to expect from Jones.  That sounds like a lot of us when it comes to golf, especially me, who would inevitably shoot my best rounds and shots when no one else was watching.

I used to golf a lot when I was younger.  We had a course a half-block away and we used to goof around there all the time.  In 7th grade, I went out for junior high golf and consistently shot in the mid-40s.  However, there were a lot of great golfers older than me so I switched to tennis in 8th grade and then competed in both tennis and track and field in 9th grade before settling with just track in 10th grade on.

Golf has always been a little slow for me so when my kids were very young and I wanted to play a quick round of golf I’d often grab my six clubs that I use (a putter, two 5-irons, a 7-iron, a 3-wood and a driver) and head out with my pull cart.  I could run or jog around the course in about 45 minutes for 9 holes and I’d either golf one ball, or use two and play a sort of scramble golf.

When my kids got older, we got a cart from a neighbor and we used that for many summers, playing mostly scramble golf.  Thinking back, playing “scramble golf” probably ruined my golf game because from then on, I didn’t play my own ball for an entire round very often and when I did, bad things seemed to happen quite often.

Getting back to the book about Bobby Jones, the one rule of golf that I thought was so interesting and which wasn’t changed until close to 1950 was the “marking your ball on the green” rule.  Back then, players did not pick up their ball ever.  Once on the green, the golfers would putt out according to who was the farthest away from the hole, and if there was a ball in your way, tough luck.

Jones used that to his advantage one year to win a major title.  He purposely putted his ball in the line of his opponent (a tactic called a stymie), who needed to make a 10-foot putt to tie with Jones.  The opponent tried to use an iron to chip over Jones’ ball, but to no avail.  Thankfully, that rule has been changed.

After retiring from golf in 1930 because of the stress and still an amateur, Jones went on to make a lot of money from the sport of golf, including designing clubs and making golf videos for television.

I don’t have Bobby Jones’ clubs, but I did get a set of Tom Weiskopf clubs when I was younger (anyone remember him?) and I still use the irons from that set to this day.  The 5-iron I bent around a tree one time (yes, my temper wasn’t the best when I was younger), so I would use that for short chips around the green and another 5-iron that I found one time for longer shots.  I also had some woods from the 1970s, but my father-in-law did buy me my first set of metal woods in the early 1990s and I’ve been using them for the past 20-30 years.  As far as a putter goes, I’ve used the same putter my entire life.  I bet not many golfers can say that and definitely, not many good golfers would ever want to say that.

Yes, Bobby Jones was quite the guy and was one of the biggest celebrities in the world during his peak.  Golf was becoming very popular in the U.S. at the time.  He won the U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur title in 1930, and also won the British Open and British Amateur title that same year to win what was referred to at the time as the Grand Slam of golf.

He retired after that, citing nerves, stress and a lack of enjoyment from competitive golf as the reasons for retirement.

He went on to earn a lot of money from golf the rest of his life with movies, shorts, instructional videos and designing golf courses, including the course used for the Masters Golf Tournament at Augusta National Golf Course in Atlanta, where he lived.

After trying to get the Masters’ course to host the U.S. Open one year, he and others instead convinced golf officials to start another yearly tournament, the Masters, which eventually became part of the official Grand Slam of golf.

Jones eventually succumbed to spinal problems, which would force him to spend his later years in a wheelchair and unable to write correspondence with friends.

It was said that throughout his life and even into his later years he liked to smoke 30 cigarettes a day and have at least 2-6 drinks per day.  Cigarettes were considered vogue at the time and doctors would sometimes prescribe nicotine to help people deal with stress.  My, how times have changed.

Yes, when it comes to Bobby Jones and golf, I know somewhat how he felt.  Golf is a great game, and I love playing it, but the stress from playing golf always seemed to get the better of me and I could always talk myself into a bad shot.

But boy, when those good shots came, golf could be such a wonderful sport.