1925 US Amateur at Oakmont Official Program - Bobby Jones 3rd Major Victory - Rare

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This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/12/2020

1925 US Amateur at Oakmont Official Program - Bobby Jones 3rd Major Victory - Rare

One of the finest challenges in golf collecting is assembling programs from Bobby Jones 13 Major Championships. A detailed study of the top golf and sports auction houses over the past ten years show that there has been a grand total of four programs from Jones' first three Major wins offered - (2) 1923 U.S. Open Inwood Country Club outside New York City, (1) 1924 U.S. Amateur at Merion Golf Club outside Philadelphia and (1) 1925 U.S. Amateur at Oakmont Country Club outside Pittsburgh. In understanding difficulty of 100 year old golf programs you have to get a feel for print runs. A basic premise to follow is 1.) Many more patrons attended the U.S. Open over the U.S. Amateur events thus more programs were initially printed for Open Championships over Amateur events. 2). More programs are printed for large metropolitan areas over a smaller print run when the Championships are conducted in less populous cities. Those two concepts have contributed to the '25 Amateur program rising to the top as the most difficult of a very challenging group of Jones' Major programs to assemble. The nice thing to consider, for those starting this project, as Jones fame rose so did print runs for the programs of events he played in, not that 1930 Grand Slam programs are easy by any means. How scarce is this item? One veteran collector reports only knowing of three in existence, and another has been looking for thirty years for this lynch pin to his collection. To simplify owning this 1925 U.S. Amateur program is to dominate Jones program collecting. Just as Jones dominated the 1925 U.S. Amateur which featured 16 qualifiers playing 36-hole matches. Jones in blow-out fashion won his first three matches 11-and-10, 6-and-5, and 7-and-6. The final was an all East Lake Country Club event, as Jones faced fellow club member Watts Gunn. It was the first and only time that two members from the same club had ended-up in the finals of the Amateur. Gunn was on a run of spectacular golf which included a never before seen and never to be equaled streak of 15 straight winning holes in an earlier match of that event. His fellow Atlanta native however was no match for Jones in the final a match that ended on the 29th hole, with Jones a 8-and-7 victor. He had defended his 1924 Amateur title won at Merion. The U.S.G.A's prize for winning the Amateur was the Havemeyer Trophy. It would be proudly displayed at East Lake only to have the trophy destroyed by a clubhouse fire in November that year. It is not known how many 1925 U.S. Amateur programs went up in smoke with the trophy in that fire. What is known is this example of the '25 Amateur program is one of the scant few that has survived till 2020. Program remains in excellent condition(please see detailed photos for a better understanding of quality) with strong original binding with its only visible flaw of note being a soft left lower corner. Our consignor reports that he purchased the cherished collectible many years ago from the family who originally saw Jones at his finest during the 1925 Amateur.

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