The Immortal Bobby: Bobby Jones and the Golden Age of Golf Hardcover - 2005 - 1st Edition

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From the rear cover

Of all the giants of golf's Golden Age, Bobby Jones was the most revered. His intelligence, modesty, eloquence, and charm--and the fact he remained an amateur throughout his career--so completely captivated the public that at times it seemed almost beside the point that he was also the best golfer in the world. Jones's fame reached its peak in 1930 when he became the only golfer ever to win the Grand Slam and the only person in history to receive a second ticker-tape parade on Broadway. Two months later, he shocked the sports world by announcing his retirement.

Yet beneath the easy grace he exhibited on and off the golf course, there was another Bobby Jones--one who through the years battled his volatile temper; the pressure of competition that grew so unbearable he was often left near tears and unable to take any pleasure in winning; and, in the final decades of his life, an agonizing physical decline that robbed him of everything but his dignity.

Rapoport also re-creates an era when golf rose from an unfamiliar game born in Scotland to one of America's most popular pastimes. He depicts Jones's colorful and so-often frustrated opponents, visits each of the Grand Slam courses--they are all still in play today--and shows that while Jones was admired in his own country, he was adored in Great Britain. But for all his international fame, Jones remained a true son of Atlanta, and The Immortal Bobby demonstrates how that fact affected his views on politics and race. The book also offers compelling new evidence that much of what has been widely believed about the spinal condition that made Jones's final years so tragic is incomplete and incorrect.

From the jacket flap

Of all the giants of golf's Golden Age, Bobby Jones was the most revered. His intelligence, modesty, eloquence, and charm--and the fact he remained an amateur throughout his career--so completely captivated the public that at times it seemed almost beside the point that he was also the best golfer in the world. Jones's fame reached its peak in 1930 when he became the only golfer ever to win the Grand Slam and the only person in history to receive a second ticker-tape parade on Broadway. Two months later, he shocked the sports world by announcing his retirement.

Yet beneath the easy grace he exhibited on and off the golf course, there was another Bobby Jones--one who through the years battled his volatile temper; the pressure of competition that grew so unbearable he was often left near tears and unable to take any pleasure in winning; and, in the final decades of his life, an agonizing physical decline that robbed him of everything but his dignity.

Rapoport also re-creates an era when golf rose from an unfamiliar game born in Scotland to one of America's most popular pastimes. He depicts Jones's colorful and so-often frustrated opponents, visits each of the Grand Slam courses--they are all still in play today--and shows that while Jones was admired in his own country, he was adored in Great Britain. But for all his international fame, Jones remained a true son of Atlanta, and The Immortal Bobby demonstrates how that fact affected his views on politics and race. The book also offers compelling new evidence that much of what has been widely believed about the spinal condition that made Jones's final years so tragic is incomplete and incorrect.