Born on St Patrick's Day, the achievements of Jones are legend

Bobby Jones was very proud of having been born on St Patrick's Day. In fact he made special reference to it in a goodwill message to the organisers of the 1960 Canada Cup at Portmarnock. But other landmark developments in 1902, when he first saw the light, ensured that it would become a vintage year in the history of the game.

In his Canada Cup message, Jones wrote: ". . . Since it was for a long time, years ago, my ambition to play the Portmarnock links, I envy those who will have this privilege. I might add that since I was born on St Patrick's Day, it is mandatory that I should pull for a victory for Ireland. With best wishes to all. Most sincerely, Robert T Jones Jr (signed)."

As the game's greatest amateur, his achievements are the stuff of legend. For instance, from 1923 to 1930, he was beaten only once in 36-holes matchplay, prompting Bernard Darwin to observe: "Like the man in the song, many of Mr Jones's opponents are tired of living but feared of dying. However, their fears are rarely unduly protracted since they usually die very soon after lunch."

The year 1912 was clearly a rather special one in that it marked the birth of Ben Hogan, Sam Snead and Byron Nelson, three of the game's greatest players. But in the context of golf's early development, 1902 was significantly more important.

It was the year the new, Haskall golf-ball became a resounding success. Once the aerodynamic problems which had earned the disparaging label of "Bouncing Billy", had been resolved, Coburn Haskell's invention sounded the death-knell of the gutta-percha. And ease of production meant it was soon available everywhere.

Measurably longer than the gutta-percha, its introduction soon led to legal problems, with a claim that the idea of making a ball from rubber-thread winding had been conceived in Britain as early as 1871. After protracted wrangling in the courts, the ball was banned in Britain and Ireland in 1905.

But in the meantime, it had made a huge impact. Sandy Herd provided a priceless endorsement by using it to capture the British Open at Hoylake in 1902. Then, on September 17th of that year, another Scot, Willie Anderson, made history in the Western Open with a winning aggregate of 299 - the first time 300 had been broken for 72 holes in the US.

Less than a month later, on October 11th, Laurie Auchterlonie became the first player to break 80 in each of four rounds of the US Open, carding 78,78,74,77 for a winning aggregate of 307 with the Haskell ball. A measure of the success of rubber-wound golf balls is that the construction method has remained largely unchanged to the present day.

As a postscript, it should be noted that 1902 was less than two months old when a certain Eugenio Saraceni was born in Harrison, New York on February 27th. Gene Sarazen would achieve 57 tournament victories, while becoming the first player to win the British Open, US Open, US Masters and USPGA titles - the socalled Modern Grand Slam.

"He doesn't want to play the tour anymore, but he's a tremendous talent. He can play some very good golf."

- Former US Open champion Ken Venturi, talking about his CBS television colleague, David Feherty.