(Editor’s note: This story first ran in The Dispatch on Dec. 20, 2016.)
Six days before golf balls rained upon the 1926 U.S. Open at Scioto Country Club, a deluge of ticker-tape confetti poured on Bobby Jones as the golfer traveled through New York’s Canyon of Heroes.
Jones, the pre-eminent amateur player in the world, was being feted for winning the British Open two weeks earlier — just the third time an athlete had been honored with a parade down Broadway. But winning the Claret Jug was just the beginning of what would become a sensational season for the 24-year-old Georgian, even if he never saw it coming.
Jones showed up at Scioto wearing his plus-fours on the Tuesday before the July 8 start of the U.S. Open — known then as the National Open Championship of the United States — feeling burned out from a combination of playing the British Open, transatlantic travel and the hoopla in New York.
“I was stale and had no idea of winning,” he said.
After the first two rounds at Scioto, the idea of hoisting the trophy seemed out of reach. Jones opened with a 2-under-par 70 on Thursday, but ballooned to a 79 on Friday. The U.S. Open played its four rounds over three days for the first time since 1919, because of the number of entries (153) and size of the galleries. The final 36 holes were played on Saturday.
Jones, who won his first U.S. Open in 1923, was joined in the field by eight other previous champions, including Gene Sarazen, Walter Hagen and Chick Evans. Facing those legends might make anyone queasy, but for whatever reason, Jones awoke on Saturday with a stomachache so severe he needed to visit a doctor on the way to the course. Then he went out and shot 71 to pull within three shots of Cleveland’s Joe Turnesa entering the final 18 holes.
The record book shows that Jones went on to win his second U.S. Open championship by one stroke, becoming the first player to capture British and U.S. Open titles in the same year. But before he could win it, Turnesa had to lose it, which he did with five bogeys in six holes on the final nine holes.
Playing a group ahead of Jones, Turnesa stopped the bleeding with a birdie at the par-5 72nd hole, momentarily pulling even with the amateur, but that only added to the drama. Needing a par to force a playoff, Jones smashed a 310-yard drive at the last, then hit his approach shot to 15 feet and two-putted for the win.
Scioto played at nearly 6,700 yards in 1926, which is about 500 yards shorter than it will play when 156 players tee off Thursday in the U.S. Senior Open. Unlike when Scioto was founded in 1916, there will be few large mammals on the grounds, unless you count a Golden Bear; two-time U.S. Senior Open winner Jack Nicklaus is serving as honorary chairman of the tournament.
In 1925, Prohibition contributed to Scioto feeling some financial pinch. Every penny mattered, so the club sold two cows that had grazed the course to keep it trimmed. Jones winning the U.S. Open proved financially fortuitous for Scioto, which gained positive press in part because Jones was one of the most popular athletes on the planet.
His presence contributed to large galleries (estimated at 4,000) visiting the parklands-style course designed by Donald Ross. Spectators, including Major League Baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, were encouraged to wear “easy shoes and tramping togs.”
Many store windows in Downtown Columbus carried pictures of the best players and displays of the course, which in some ways was set up just the way it will look this week.
George Trautman, Scioto’s general manager in 1926, described the course in “the pink of condition” but advised “the boys playing in the Open to stick to the fairways.”
It seems some things never change.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Golf | Scioto Country Club history: Bobby Jones not too tired to rally for second Open title in 1926
Reporting by Rob Oller, The Columbus Dispatch, The Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Rob Oller, The Columbus Dispatch, The Columbus Dispatch | USA TODAY Network
