Like Father, Like Fun

Fourteen-year-old Robert Tyre Jones Jr. stood on the first tee of Philadelphia's Merion Cricket Club golf course, his palms clammy, his knees quaking. Murmurous around, the tee was a surf of faces. For Bobby Jones, Atlanta's Boy Wonder, was the youngest golfer ever to compete in the National Amateur.

That was 25 years ago, and last week 14-year-old Robert Tyre Jones III stood on the first tee of Chattanooga's Golf and Country Club, his palms clammy, his knees quaking. Murmurous around the tee was a surf of faces. For Bobby Jones III, only son of the Boy Wonder who went on to become the world's greatest golfer, was making his debut in tournament golf.

Except for his moonface, Young Bobby is as unlike his father as tee and green. At 14, the Old Man was short and chubby. Young Bobby is nearly six feet tall, weighs 195 Ib. At 14, the Old Man was already a perfectionist, with eight years of painstaking practice behind him. When he made a sour shot, he would turn purple, talk purple, fling his club toward the next county. Young Bobby is happy-go-lucky, prone to grin rather than groan when he misses a three-foot putt. At 14, the Old Man could break 70.* Young Bobby is happy if he can break 90.

Still, at Atlanta's Marist High School, where he is a freshman, young Bobby is a standout golfer. Last week he found himself competing with 100 other schoolboys in the sixth annual Southern Prep and High School golf tournament. "I don't expect him to break 90 for his first 18 holes," said Father Jones, on hand to watch his son play. Not the least embarrassed, Emperor Jones explained his son's game: "He hits the ball a mile from the tee, a mile on the fairway, a mile on the green in almost any direction."

Young Bobby promptly fulfilled his dad's prophecy--and then some. For the first two rounds he posted 193 (95-98), 53 shots over par. "I got every penalty on the whole course," explained the Emperor's son. "I went out of bounds, I hit opponents' balls and did everything else."

First crack out of the box, the new owners of the Boston National League Baseball Club last week changed its nickname back from The Bees to the Braves. Its previous nicknames: Doves (after Owner George B. Dovey), 1907-12; Bean Eaters, 1876-1907.

*The Old Master can still burn up the fairways for one round or so. Last month, playing a friendly foursome at Atlanta's East Lake Country Club (a par 70 layout), he tied the course record with a score of 63 (32-31).

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