📍East Lake, Atlanta, GA 30317, USA
1908 – 1920“I was born in Atlanta in March 1902, the son of Robert Permedus Jones, a prominent lawyer whom everyone called the Colonel, and Clara. I was a frail, sickly little boy with a digestive illness, and until I was five I could barely eat solid food. Doctors thought the country air would do me good, so my parents took a summer cottage beside the East Lake course of the Atlanta Athletic Club, then on the rural edge of the city, where they had both taken up golf. A neighbour gave me a cut-down club when I was about five, and I followed the club's Scottish professional, Stewart Maiden, around the course, watching his swing and copying it exactly, then practising on a little course I laid out in our garden. Stewart never gave me a formal lesson, but he was the only teacher I ever had. At six I took part in a little tournament for children at East Lake, and at nine I won the Atlanta Athletic Club's junior championship. My health improved with all that time outdoors, and the course became my whole world. At fourteen I played in the US Amateur, and I struggled with my temper for years before I learned to master it. I studied engineering at Georgia Tech, English literature at Harvard and law at Emory, and remained an amateur, practising law in Atlanta. In 1930 I won the Grand Slam, then retired at twenty-eight and founded Augusta National and the Masters. East Lake, where it all began, has been restored and hosts the Tour Championship.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today