The Bobby Jones Letter

On August 15, 1948, Bobby Jones’s played his last round of golf at Wahconah Country Club. He had just returned from Boston wherein he had received a diagnosis that he had a crippling spinal disease.  He met with his good friend and Wahconah Country Club member, Bill O’Connell, to play a four-ball match with Bruce Crane and Rankin Furey.  In recording this event, Rene Clarke rendered a water painting of the foursome on the 6th green that day.  The original painting and a letter from Bobby Jones indicating that “This was my last effort, sorry it was not a better one”, hangs in his room at the USGA’s Museum in Far Hills, NJ.  Per an agreement between the USGA and Bill O’Connell, Wahconah Country Club was allowed to make one copy of the painting and the letter for display in our Clubhouse.

Bobby Jones was a true amateur golfer who won 13 “major” tournaments between 1923 & 1930.  At that time the U.S. Amateur was considered a “major”.  He won it 6 times along with 4 U.S. Opens and 3 Open Championships.  In 1930, he won the Grand Slam by winning all four majors; the only golfer to ever do it in the same year.  In addition, Mr. Jones co-designed the Augusta National course with Alister MacKenzie, which opened in early 1933. He also founded the Masters Tournament, first played at Augusta in March 1934.  He is certainly one of the foremost icons of U.S. golf and we are proud to recognize that his “last effort” was played at Wahconah Country Club.

In 1948, Wahconah Country Club was a nine-hole golf course.  The current back nine had not been constructed as yet.  So Mr. Jones’s last hole was our current 9th hole.

SHORTLY AFTER PLAYING THE 9TH HOLE ON AUGUST 15, 1948,
BOBBY JONES WROTE,
“THIS WAS MY LAST EFFORT, SORRY IT WASN’T A BETTER ONE”