The Slam

The year 2005 marks the 75th anniversary of Bobby Jones's remarkable 1930 season. No one had won the Grand Slam before - and no one has since. In a splendid narrative that is worthy of Jones's singular achievement, Curt Sampson, acknowledged as one of golf's best writers, captures the magic of his feat and the high cost he paid to achieve it, set against the backdrop of the Depression. Jones was such a sickly child that he was unable to eat solid food until the age of 5. At 6 he found golf, and by age 14 he was nationally known as a golf prodigy. He had matinee idol looks and dated Zelda Sayre before novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald wed her. His 1930 golf season glittered so brightly that he got two tickertape parades. Then, at the top of his game, he shocked everyone and quit the sport. The book focuses explicitly on Jones and 1930. His fast run to glory was a dark, intricate tale that has never been told until now. The public Jones waved to the crowd in tickertape parades and smiled for the newsreel cameras. Meanwhile, the private man endured agonies. He couldn't eat or sleep, and morning drinking became his norm.
Jones won with skill, courage, a lottery winner's luck - and some truly shocking help from George Prescott Bush, the father and grandfather of presidents. Jones conquered the world just as it was falling apart. His triumphs represented hope for the hopelesse. In many ways, Jones was the horse the world followed before Seabiscuit. And like Laura Hillenbrand's mega-bestseller, this is a sports story that "captures the essence of an era-equal parts compelling sports i biography, sweeping social history, and stirring human drama.