Bobby's Open: Mr. Jones and the Golf Shot That Defined a Legend

Description

TIMES BRITISH SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2013 25th June 1926. Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club is hosting the world's oldest and most prestigious golf tournament - The Open Championship. A stellar field of players has assembled from both sides of the Atlantic hoping to claim victory, including Walter Hagen, Harry Vardon and a rising young amateur from the USA, Bobby Jones. Already a winner of the US Open and US Amateur Championship, Jones has yet to win a Major event on British soil. To do so now would set him on a path of unrivalled achievement and into the history books as the greatest amateur golfer the world has ever known. As the competition boils down to the penultimate hole on the final day, Bobby must hold his nerve to pull off a miracle recovery shot that will fire his reputation - and that of the golf course - around the world. Bobby's Open is the inspirational story of a golfing legend and one of the game's defining contests. Steven Reid blends social history with sporting biography to portray the most famous sportsman of his time, examining why Jones was so adored and the cruel price he ultimately paid for his genius.

Steven Reid is a life-long member of Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club, which he captained in 1996 and is currently chairman of its Heritage Committee. Steven is also Chief Medical Officer of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews and a member of County Sligo Golf Club at Rosses Point, West of Ireland. His previous book Get to the Point extolled the virtues of the Harry Colt-designed links at Sligo.

'Thoughtful and thought-provoking' -- John Hopkins * The Times * '[Reid] works to examine Jones's complex mind by stitching the various strands that Jones had to pull together to win his first Open championship ... the story thrives.' -- Jeff Silverman, Sports Illustrated 'The book should be considered as an additional to every golfer's library.' -- John Peter Hagen, author of Play Away Please 'A profound understanding of Jones the man emerges' -- Dermot Gilleece, Irish Sunday Independent 'A fabulously researched, in-depth look at Bobby Jones' Open victory at Royal Lytham in 1926' * Today's Golfer * `Acknowledging that few golfers have had more words written about them than Jones, [Reid] still manages to turn a number of fascinating fresh furrows.' -- Dermot Gilleece, Irish Sunday Independent `Most interesting and well written' -- Bruce Critchley, Sky Sports lead golf broadcaster