[BCrosby]

Well... not in the flesh.

I was at the Atlanta History Center library last weekend. My wife is writing a piece that required her to do some research there. She had not finished when I arrived to fetch her. While waiting, I remembered that Bobby Jones' books were housed at the AHC. Looking over his collection through glass doors, I picked out a couple of books. I was allowed to look at them only if I did so in full view of the librarians at the front desk. Which I thought a bit much, but the rules is the rules.

Anyhow, about my encounter. Jones owned a copy of Low's Concerning Golf. It was one of the few of his books that showed much wear. I opened it and within a couple of pages I found hand written notes in the margins. At one point Jones wrote "irredeemable", copying the word from Low's text. At another page he underlined "will" at a couple of places in Low's text and wrote "may" in the margin. A number of other passages were underlined.

None of this is of earth shattering significance. I can't prove that it is Jones' hand-writing. But it doesn't seem crazy to think it is. Jones seems to have read Low with some care. Whatever any of that means, it was nonetheless a thrill to stumble across it.

Bob      

[Jeff_Brauer]

Bob,

Kinda cool.

Had a few similar experiences, notably at Oakland Hills with Jeff Mingay where the super showed us Donald Ross field visit notes.  Notations were surprisingly similar to what I might do.  I recall him writing the second green had to be lowered for vision to the putting surface, another tee had to move for safety from a nearby green, etc.

I was cleaning out my emails yesterday, and I came across a nice letter Geoff Cornish had his assistant send me back in October, asking me to address the issue of current architects making courses too hard for beginners, seniors and women in my Golf Industry Magazine monthly column (and, BTW, coming soon).

In all cases, its a bit eerie to sort of get messages from the dead, as if they are carrying on their lifes work with the living......

[Niall C]

Bob

Great stuff, its fantastic when somethign like that happens. I don't suppose they would let you take some notes or a photo. It would be interesting to see what different take or emphasis Jones put on things.

Niall

[BCrosby]

Jeff -

Yes, there was a 'messages from beyond the veil' aspect to it. I felt like I was eavesdropping on Jones as he was reading Low.

It heightened the eeriness when the librarian told me I was, according to their records, the first person to have asked to see the book.

Bob

[Bill_McBride]

Very cool Bob.  A few years ago I was staying with friends in her sister's apartment in Manhatten.  Her sister's late husband was a book collector.   I was up early one morning and was browsing the bookshelves when I spotted a copy of Down the Fairway.   Open it up, first edition.  Turned the page, autographed by Jones.   No librarians watching but I was ethical enough to slip it back on the shelf.    

Another cool Jones sighting was golf at Hoylake where he won the 1930 Open Championsip and Wallasey which was the second qualifying course that year of the Grand Slam.   Both clubs have original oil paintings in their clubhouses.   Boy he was a handsome young man!

[Mike_Young]

Very cool Bob.  A few years ago I was staying with friends in her sister's apartment in Manhatten.  Her sister's late husband was a book collector.   I was up early one morning and was browsing the bookshelves when I spotted a copy of Down the Fairway.   Open it up, first edition.  Turned the page, autographed by Jones.   No librarians watching but I was ethical enough to slip it back on the shelf.    

Another cool Jones sighting was golf at Hoylake where he won the 1930 Open Championsip and Wallasey which was the second qualifying course that year of the Grand Slam.   Both clubs have original oil paintings in their clubhouses.   Boy he was a handsome young man!

Bill,
I had a similar situation except it wasn't golf related.  I was watching videos with Charlie Rymer one night at his place ( he collects special movies) and when I looked at the cover I realized it had been signed by Linda Lovelace...

[Jeff_Brauer]

Bill,

I have told this story before, but another time while in Detroit, I stopped by OH hoping to get a tour (called super first from airport, but no answer so I just showed up).  No one in the maintenance area, but I spot the Ross US Open plan, a print with a bunch of red marks on it by Ross.  Never so tempted to steal something in my life, but of course I left it there and left, leaving a note for the super.

BTW, in my prevous post, it wasn't OH, that was another Ross course in Det.  Can't recall the name right now.

Mike,

You have reached dirty old man status!  Of course, what does it say about me when golf drawings are bigger temptations......golf porn!

[BCrosby]

Bill -

A friend's father-in-law died recently. He and his wife went to help arrange her father's belongings and sell his house. By the time they got there, her sisters had already boxed her father's books, which they had arranged to sell in bulk to a used book dealer. My friend went through a couple of the boxes and came across a copy of Golf Is My Game with its dust jacket. Inside was Jones' autograph to the deceased father-in-law. My friend quietly pulled out the book and put it in his car. It now sits on the shelf in his den here in Atlanta. Stuff happens.

Bob

[Jeff_Brauer]

I have always been fascinated by how historic documents turn up.  Of course, its the stuff of movie plots, but it does happen often enough, even in golf architecture, like that PV routing in a mechanics shop, to give us all hope that some good stuff will turn up.......someday.

[Anthony Gray]

  Thanks for sharing Bob. That would have given me chills.

 

[Tim Martin]

Very cool Bob.  A few years ago I was staying with friends in her sister's apartment in Manhatten.  Her sister's late husband was a book collector.   I was up early one morning and was browsing the bookshelves when I spotted a copy of Down the Fairway.   Open it up, first edition.  Turned the page, autographed by Jones.   No librarians watching but I was ethical enough to slip it back on the shelf.    

Another cool Jones sighting was golf at Hoylake where he won the 1930 Open Championsip and Wallasey which was the second qualifying course that year of the Grand Slam.   Both clubs have original oil paintings in their clubhouses.   Boy he was a handsome young man!

Bill,
I had a similar situation except it wasn't golf related.  I was watching videos with Charlie Rymer one night at his place ( he collects special movies) and when I looked at the cover I realized it had been signed by Linda Lovelace...

Mike- What`s it like watching porn with Charlie? Can you set the stage for us as far as atmosphere? Is there mood lighting and incense burning? What about food? Is it catered or does Charlie just throw out what he has on hand? Does he have one of those 3D TV`s where you wear those crazy glasses? Maybe you could just start by answering those questions but I got a pile more if you will indulge me.

[Mike Hendren]

Thanks for sharing Bob.  Reminds me of the time I visiedt the Turfts Archives and was pouring over the files for various Ross courses.  The curator said she had something down in the basement I might want to see.  She returns and unrolls Ross' Seminole routing on linen. Like a true GCA dork I was euphoric!

Bogey

[BCrosby]

"I was watching videos with Charlie Rymer one night at his place ( he collects special movies) and when I looked at the cover I realized it had been signed by Linda Lovelace..."

So we know she could do at least two things at the same time?

Bob

[Peter Pallotta]

Lovely stories, thanks. Bob - striking that you were the first person to ask to see the book. Think about that.  We assume (so often wrongly) that there is no more to discover about someone like Bobby Jones, that "all the books have been written".  And yet, there you are - you, because you are you -- finding a gem and making connections between Jones and Low.  One more piece. I hope you find a way to follow-up and dig deeper and put down your findings/thoughts.

Peter

[Rick Shefchik]

Bob, your story reminds me of the first draft of the first chapter of my novel "Amen Corner." I wrote it during the Martha Burke flap, and as the chapter initially began, a book collector in California finds a copy of Bobby Jones's "Down The Fairway" at an estate sale. Inside the book, he finds a folded letter, written to the owner of the book by Bobby Jones himself, dated 1934. In the letter, Jones says he was considering an invitation to Marion Hollins to become a member of Augusta National, but Clifford Roberts was resisting the idea. The hustler who finds the letter then takes it to Augusta and tries to use it as blackmail to get a huge sum of money from the club to keep the letter out of Martha Burke's hands. He ends up in a swamp.

For whatever reason, I decided not to use that story line, but I still like it. The idea of discovering new information about long-gone legends is very powerful.

[Bob_Huntley]

If anyone on this site needs confirmation on just about anything Bobby Jones wrote or did, should contact the Holy Grail of Jonesia, Sydney Matthew, author of a dozen or so books on the man.  Whenever there is a movie or filmed piece on Jones he can provide all the bloopers that end up at IMDb.

Bob

[Jeff_Mingay]

That's a great story, Bob. And I think it proves why Bobby Jones is Bobby Jones in many ways.

Jeff B. - You confused me for a second there, as I didn't recall us seeing those Ross notes at OH. Must have been Franklin Hills?

[BCrosby]

Rick -

A wonderful plot device. Given how quickly the Martha Burke thing fizzled, a very short 'use by' date. So probably a good thing you didn't go that way.

Years ago I wrote about a third of a murder mystery. The plot turns on a nerd researcher who discovers a forgotten MacK routing. The current owner of the land on which the MacK course was to be built has no idea who MacK was or knowledge of the routing. Real estate developers get wind of it, the researcher is found face down in a lake, the property owner has a freak fatal car accident, bedlam with the heirs ensues over title to the property and a local lawyer starts to wonder if something fishy is going on. My draft is now buried deep in a drawer and will stay there.

Bob

  

[Sean_Tully]

Had not seen this photo before and found it interesting last night as I was filing things away on my computer. MacDonald has a just the hint  of a smile so he wasn't always so dour! There is a lot out there for us to find on Jones and MacDonald that these kind of finds keep us on the hunt!

June 1926 Golfers Magazine

[BCrosby]

Peter -

Most remarkable to me about all this has gone unsaid so far. Jones, the best golfer of his era, actually read books and apparently did so with great care.

A caveat to that. Another of the Jones books I checked out - Everard's history of the R&A - still has a number of uncut pages. So he didn't read everything.

Bob  

 

[Peter Pallotta]

Very good point, Bob.  I sometimes wonder if the price we pay for the 'specialist' age we live in is the lessening of 'character' as a value to be sought.

Peter

 

[Tim Liddy]

Bob,

Did the hair stand up on the back of your neck? I think mine would have.

[BCrosby]

Bob,

Did the hair stand up on the back of your neck? I think mine would have.

Tim - As a matter of fact it did. As we were leaving the library I told my wife - a/k/a The Bets - that we needed to go have a drink. The Bets then had the pleasure of listening to a one way conversation for about half an hour.

Bob 

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Bob, thank you for that. It was priceless. Naturally Jeff made a wonderful comment as did others. Then Mike Young made me laugh out loud. cheers

[Niall C]

Peter -

Most remarkable to me about all this has gone unsaid so far. Jones, the best golfer of his era, actually read books and apparently did so with great care.

A caveat to that. Another of the Jones books I checked out - Everard's history of the R&A - still has a number of uncut pages. So he didn't read everything.

Bob  

 

Bob

I would imagine the Everard book might have been a gift but then its still enlightening to know what he actually read and what he simply put in the bookshelf for show.

Niall

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