From Publishers Weekly
Before Arnold, Jack and Tiger, there was Bobby. After winning the Grand Slam of golf in 1930, Jones stood like a colossus over the American sporting scene. He is the only individual to have been recognized with two ticker tape parades down Broadway's Canyon of Heroes. Frost (The Greatest Game Ever Played) has written a swift, surefooted account of Jones's remarkable life and career. From Jones's precocious early days on the Atlanta links to his sudden retreat from the media spotlight, Frost covers every detail. The self-taught Jones began playing serious tournaments at 14 and quickly moved into the ranks of the world's best players. In 1930, he won the four major tournaments of the time: the British Amateur, the British Open, the U.S. Open and the U.S. Amateur, which sportswriters dubbed the Grand Slam. Following this success, Jones promptly retired. Later diagnosed with a rare nerve illness, he lived out his life as golf's elder statesman. While Frost's eager prose has an engaging, "you are there" quality, for nongolfers the question is whether they actually do want to be there. Frost strains to place Jones's achievement in the broader context of American history. As bedside reading for the literate duffer, this is a hole in one. For the average reader, it's a bogey. 15 b&w photos. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
In 2002, Frost retold the story of amateur golfer Francis Quimet's 1913 victory in the U.S. Open (The Greatest Game Ever Played).Now he re-creates another classic episode in golf history: the Grand Slam won by Bobby Jones in 1930, the only time the U.S. Open, U.S. Amateur, British Open, and British Amateur tournaments were ever won by the same person in the same year. As in the Quimet book, Frost builds to the climactic event with plenty of fascinating backstory, both about Jones' young life as a golf phenom and about the sports-crazy 1920s. He also delves into Jones' delicate psyche, revealing the building pressures that led to Jones' retirement from competitive golf after his unparalleled triumph. Because the story of the Grand Slam requires nearly shot-by-shot recounting of multiple golf tournaments, this book loses some of the tension and high drama that Frost was able to build in his earlier work, which climaxed more dramatically. Still, this is an excellent book of golf history, albeit not quite The Greatest Game Ever Played. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Library Journal
"Frost does a fine job of recounting the tenor of the times... highly recommended for all sports collections."

Sports Illustrated
"Using his instinct for character development to delve into Jones' psyche, Frost identifies what makes Jones interesting and startlingly contemporary."

Scottish Golf Magazine
"If you thought you knew the story of Bobby Jones... then think again: this book is the engrossingly definitive account."

Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"With clear, crisp prose Frost does a great job of bringing Jones' assault on the Grand Slam back to life."

Book Description
From the bestselling author of the critically acclaimed The Greatest Game Ever Played comes The Grand Slam, a riveting, in-depth look at the life and times of golf icon Bobby Jones. In the wake of the stock market crash and the dawn of the Great Depression, a ray of light emerged from the world of sports in the summer of 1930. Bobby Jones, an amateur golfer who had already won nine of the seventeen major championships he'd entered during the last seven years, mounted his final campaign against the record books. In four months, he conquered the British Amateur Championship, the British Open, the United States Open, and finally the United States Amateur Championship, an achievement so extraordinary that writers dubbed it the Grand Slam. A natural, self-taught player, Jones made his debut at the U.S. Amateur Championship at the age of 14. But for the next seven years, Jones struggled in major championships, and not until he turned 21 in 1923 would he harness his immense talent. What the world didn't know was that throughout his playing career the intensely private Jones had longed to retreat from fame's glaring spotlight. While the press referred to him as "a golfing machine," the strain of competition exacted a ferocious toll on his physical and emotional well-being. During the season of the Slam he constantly battled exhaustion, nearly lost his life twice, and came perilously close to a total collapse. By the time he completed his unprecedented feat, Bobby Jones was the most famous man not only in golf, but in the history of American sports. Jones followed his crowning achievement with a shocking announcement: his retirement from the game at the age of 28. His abrupt disappearance from the public eye into a closely guarded private life helped create a mythological image of this hero from the Golden Age of sports that endures to this day.

About the Author
Mark Frost is the author of The Greatest Game Ever Played and the bestselling The List of 7, The 6 Messiahs, and Before I Wake. He received a Writer's Guild Award and an Emmy nomination for his work as executive story editor on the acclaimed television series Hill Street Blues, and was the co-creator and executive producer of the ABC television series Twin Peaks. An avid golfer, he lives in Los Angeles and upstate New York.

FROM OUR EDITORS

In the summer of 1930, American golfer Bobby Jones mounted a historic assault on the record books. In a four-month tear, he won the British Amateur, the British Open, the United States Open, and the United States Amateur championships. And then, at the age of 28, he retired. Mark Frost, the author of The Greatest Game Ever Played, tells the story of the most dominant golfer in history.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"In the wake of the stock market crash and the dawn of the Great Depression, a ray of light emerged from the world of sports in the summer of 1930. Bobby Jones, a twenty-eight-year-old amateur golfer who had already won nine of the seventeen major championships he'd entered during the previous seven years, mounted a campaign against the record books. In four months, he conquered the British Amateur Championship, the British Open, the United States Open, and finally the United States Amateur Championship, an achievement so extraordinary that writers dubbed it the Grand Slam. No one has ever repeated it." What the world didn't know was that throughout his entire playing career the intensely private Jones had longed to retreat from fame's glaring spotlight. The strain of competition exacted a ferocious toll on his physical and emotional well-being. So much so that soon after the Grand Slam, Jones made a shocking announcement: He was retiring from the game. His abrupt disappearance from the public eye into a closely guarded private life helped create the mythological image of this hero from the Golden Age of sports that endures to this day.

FROM THE CRITICS

Sports Illustrated

Using his instinct for character development to delve into Jones' psyche, Frost identifies what makes Jones interesting and startlingly contemporary.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

With clear, crisp prose Frost does a great job of bringing Jones' assault on the Grand Slam back to life.

Scottish Golf Magazine

If you thought you knew the story of Bobby Jones . . ., then think again: this book is the engrossingly definitive account.

Publishers Weekly

Before Arnold, Jack and Tiger, there was Bobby. After winning the Grand Slam of golf in 1930, Jones stood like a colossus over the American sporting scene. He is the only individual to have been recognized with two ticker tape parades down Broadway's Canyon of Heroes. Frost (The Greatest Game Ever Played) has written a swift, surefooted account of Jones's remarkable life and career. From Jones's precocious early days on the Atlanta links to his sudden retreat from the media spotlight, Frost covers every detail. The self-taught Jones began playing serious tournaments at 14 and quickly moved into the ranks of the world's best players. In 1930, he won the four major tournaments of the time: the British Amateur, the British Open, the U.S. Open and the U.S. Amateur, which sportswriters dubbed the Grand Slam. Following this success, Jones promptly retired. Later diagnosed with a rare nerve illness, he lived out his life as golf's elder statesman. While Frost's eager prose has an engaging, "you are there" quality, for nongolfers the question is whether they actually do want to be there. Frost strains to place Jones's achievement in the broader context of American history. As bedside reading for the literate duffer, this is a hole in one. For the average reader, it's a bogey. 15 b&w photos. Agent, Ed Victor. (Nov.) Forecast: The Greatest Game (2002) was praised widely, and cross-promos with the USGA and golfing events could help this new book gain traction among Frost's readers. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal