Robert Tyre Jones Jr. (March 17, 1902 – December 18, 1971) was an American amateur golfer who was one of the most influential figures in the history of the sport; he was also a lawyer by profession.

Jones founded and helped design the Augusta National Golf Club, and co-founded the Masters Tournament.

"[6] Jones is most famous for his unique "Grand Slam," consisting of his victory in all four major golf tournaments of his era (the open and amateur championships in both the U.S. and the U.K.) in a single calendar year (1930).

He developed quickly into a child prodigy who won his first children's tournament at the age of six at his home course at East Lake Golf Club.

The Georgia Amateur win caught the eye of the United States Golf Association which awarded Jones his first invitation to the U.S.

[citation needed] Jones successfully represented the United States for the first time, in two winning international amateur team matches against Canada, in 1919 and 1920, earning three of a possible four points in foursomes and singles play.

Jones also played in the 1919 Canadian Open while in Hamilton, Ontario, performing very well to place tied for second, but 16 shots behind winner J. Douglas Edgar.

[citation needed] In the first round of the 1925 U.S. Open at the Worcester Country Club near Boston, his approach shot to the 11th hole's elevated green fell short into the deep rough of the embankment.

He took the shot, then informed his playing partner Walter Hagen and the USGA official covering their match that he was calling a penalty on himself.

After the round and before he signed his scorecard, officials argued with Jones but he insisted that he had violated Rule 18, moving a ball at rest after address, and took a 77 instead of the 76 he otherwise would have carded.

Jones's self-imposed one-stroke penalty eventually cost him the win by a stroke in regulation, necessitating a playoff, which he then lost.

When he won the Open at the Old Course in 1927, he wowed the crowd by asking that the trophy remain with his friends at the Royal and Ancient Golf Club rather than return with him to Atlanta.

As Jones departed Younger Hall with his honor, the assembly spontaneously serenaded him off to the traditional tune of Will Ye No Come Back Again?

With his health difficulties, being past his prime, and not competing elsewhere to stay in tournament form, he never truly contended at the Masters, although his scores were usually respectable.

The tournament, jointly run by Jones and Clifford Roberts, made many important innovations that became the norm elsewhere, such as gallery ropes to control the flow of the large crowds, many scoreboards around the course, the use of red / green numbers on those scoreboards to denote under / over par scores, an international field of top players, high-caliber television coverage, and week-long admission passes for patrons, which became extremely hard to obtain.

[34] Following his retirement from competitive golf in 1930, and even in the years leading up to that, Jones had become one of the most famous sports figures in the world and was recognized virtually everywhere he went.

[34] Jones first visited Fruitlands, an Augusta arboretum and indigo plantation since the Civil War era, in the spring of 1930,[23] and he purchased it for $70,000 in 1931, with the plan to design a golf course on the site.

[36] Alister MacKenzie followed Jones at the 1927 Open Championship and presented him with an inscribed copy of his book Golf Architecture after his victory at the Old Course in St. Andrews.

[37] It is said that Jones was so impressed by Cypress Point that he asked MacKenzie about his interest in the Augusta project, which was originally envisioned as a "golfing hotel resort" before he won the Grand Slam.

Grantland Rice, editor of American Golfer, made the suggestion to hold a tournament for sports writers who were returning home after attending spring training in Florida.

The new tournament, originally known as the Augusta National Invitational, was an immediate success and attracted most of the world's top players right from its start.

Jones came out of retirement to play, essentially on an exhibition basis, and his presence guaranteed enormous media attention, boosting the new tournament's fame.

[50] Jones's four titles in the U.S. Open remain tied for the most ever in that championship, along with Willie Anderson, Ben Hogan, and Jack Nicklaus.

[51] Jones was ranked as the third greatest golfer of all time in a major survey published by Golf Magazine, September 2009.

"[53] Jones indicated at the time of the making of the 1931 series that the films would be "designed as instructive" but not "so complicated that a non-golfer can't understand them.

"[53] The films were popular, and Jones gave up his amateur status while earning lucrative contract money for this venture.

To keep this book readily available to golfers, Herbert Warren Wind included a reproduction of Down the Fairway in his Classics of Golf Library.

In 1943 he was promoted to major and trained as an intelligence officer, serving in England with the 84th Fighter Wing, which was part of the Ninth Air Force.

Landing in Normandy on June 7, 1944, Jones spent two months with a front line division as a prisoner of war interrogator, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel.

[72] In 1948, Jones was diagnosed with syringomyelia, a fluid-filled cavity in the spinal cord that causes crippling pain, then paralysis; he was eventually restricted to a wheelchair.