The Grand Slam

In the wake of the 1929 stock market crash, an amateur golfer began a decade of unparalleled achievement, seeming a ray of light in an otherwise depressed America. Bobby Jones won the British Amateur Championship, the British Open, the US Open and the US Amateur Championship. A new phrase was born: The Grand Slam. A modest, sensitive man, a lawyer from a middle-class Atlanta family, Bobby Jones had barely survived a sickly childhood, and took up golf at the age of five for health reasons. Jones made his debut at the US Amateur Championship in 1916 and his genius was recognised by his inspiration, Francis Ouimet. However, his health was never good, and the strain of completing the Slam exacted a ferocious toll; the US Open, played in July in blazing heat, nearly killed him. Jones fought to keep his fragile condition a secret from a country suffering from the Depression, but at the age of twenty-eight, after winning the US Amateur, he retired. His abrupt disappearance at the height of his renown inspired an impenetrable myth, to this day still fiercely protected by family and friends.

Short-listed for British Sports Book Awards 2005 (UK)

“'[This book] will be read with pleasure in the afterglowof refreshment at the 19th hole' SPECTATOR 'Mark Frosthas come up trumps with this intriguing tale about the life and careerof golf's most lauded amateur, Bobby Jones. Frost'stribute to the great man is highly commendable . . . while the subjectmatter is a selling point in itself, just as compelling is theauthor's knack of storytelling' IRELAND ON SUNDAY”

[Mark Frost's] first book on golf was, darn it, as close to perfection as any author can hope to attain . . . [THE GRAND SLAM] is unquestionably the golf book of the year - IRISH TIMES

The second book, like the second album, is supposed to be the hard one and after the massive success of THE GREATEST GAME EVER PLAYED critics doubted Frost's ability to pull it off again. He has in this wonderful bio of Bobby Jones, the first man to lay - IRISH INDEPENDENT, Top 20 Sports Books of 2004

Fascinating . . . superb - GOLF WEEKLY

[THE GRAND SLAM] will be read with pleasure in the afterglow of refreshment at the nineteenth hole - Spectator

Mark Frost is the author of THE GREATEST GAME EVER PLAYED, THE LIST OF SEVEN, THE SIX MESSIAHS and BEFORE I WAKE. He has written and produced several television series, including Hill Street Blues and Twin Peaks.

In the wake of the 1929 stock market crash, an amateur golfer began a decade of unparalleled achievement, seeming a ray of light in an otherwise depressed America. Bobby Jones won the British Amateur Championship, the British Open, the US Open and the US Amateur Championship. A new phrase was born: The Grand Slam. A modest, sensitive man, a lawyer from a middle-class Atlanta family, Bobby Jones had barely survived a sickly childhood, and took up golf at the age of five for health reasons. Jones made his debut at the US Amateur Championship in 1916 and his genius was recognised by his inspiration, Francis Ouimet. However, his health was never good, and the strain of completing the Slam exacted a ferocious toll; the US Open, played in July in blazing heat, nearly killed him. Jones fought to keep his fragile condition a secret from a country suffering from the Depression, but at the age of twenty-eight, after winning the US Amateur, he retired. His abrupt disappearance at the height of his renown inspired an impenetrable myth, to this day still fiercely protected by family and friends.

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