Bobby Jones

During the years that Bobby Jones played amateur golf, the sport experienced a phenomenal increase in popularity. The number of weekend golfers doubled, and new golf courses were constructed throughout the United States. The middle class began to enjoy golf as spectators, a position once reserved for the wealthy.

After giving up his amateur status and retiring from competitive golf in 1930, at age twenty-eight, Jones was in a position to earn money from his golfing career. He made a series of instructional films in which he taught actors how to play golf. He also designed the first matched set of iron golf clubs for Spalding and Company, in 1932. Jones had already published his first book on the subject, Down the Fairway in 1927. From 1939 to 1969 he published four more books on playing golf.