Bobby Jones with the bobbies

" If you wouldn't mind coming along with us, Sir... we can't 'ave you Americans winning all our tournaments... "

There has been much talk since Tiger Woods came upon the professional scene of the likelihood of his winning the modern professional Grand Slam. Many comparisons have been made with the brilliant feats of Bobby Jones in 1930, when, as an amateur, he won the then Grand Slam of the Amateur and Open Championships of Great Britain and the USA.

Woods has been heard to say that, having held all four major professional trophies simultaneously, he has done all that is required. Others insist that this "Tiger Slam" was not accomplished within one calendar year, and, as traditionalists, we support this view.

Few people know, however, that Bobby Jones' unique Slam almost never happened.

The Amateur Championship of 1930 was held at St.Andrews, and Jones faced the popular Englishman Roger Wethered in the final.

The match was a rather one-sided affair, with Jones taking victory by 7 & 6. This did not please certain unsporting elements in the crowd, who felt that the British were being humiliated by the Americans on their home soil (Jones had already won the Open Championship in 1926 and '27, and was succeeded as Open Champion by the great Walter Hagen in '28 and '29).

As Jones walked through the crowds back to the Clubhouse to receive the magnificent trophy, someone in the crowd cried out from the appropriately named 'Valley of Sin' - "The Yanks have come to steal all our silver" - upon which three over-zealous members of the local Constabulary apprehended Jones to take him into custody.

The incident was, fortunately, short-lived. A member of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club reasoned with the Senior Constable present, explaining that not all Americans had lost everything in the Wall Street crash of 1929 and could therefore be suspected of coveting our silverware. He also suggested that arresting Mr. Jones in the hour of his victory at the home of golf in Scotland was likely to cause a nasty diplomatic incident between the USA and Britain, whose Prime Minister, Ramsey MacDonald, was himself a Scot.

The policeman, also a golfer and somewhat sympathetic to the crowd's nationalistic view of American golf domination, realised that pursuing the case might cost him his job and relented. Jones was released, with profuse apologies, and collected his trophy without further incident. The rest is history.

This sad story had a happy ending, but if it has a moral it must be to warn us against such partisan rivalry. On the eve of the oldest international golfing event in the world, how reassuring to know that, over 70 years later, in our more enlightened age, such jingoistic behaviour could never again happen. Could it?


The Ryder Cup - 1999	The Ryder Cup - 2002