Golf art (part 2): Bobby Jones, Hoylake and the Atlanta Athletic Club

Bobby Jones accepting the Claret jug from the captain JGB Beazley in 1930 at Hoylake. Painting by Simon Dalby.

 There is a long history of friendship and collaboration between the members of The Royal Liverpool Golf Club (aka Hoylake) and The Atlanta Athletic Club (`AAC).
The connection originates from the remarkable feat achieved in 1930 by the famous amateur golfer Robert Tyre Jones when he won the original of golf`s `Grand Slams` by winning the British and US Amateur and Open Championships in the same calendar year. Hoylake marked the second leg of what was described as the `impregnable quadrilateral`.
Jones grew up playing golf at the Atlanta Athletic Club’s East Lake Country Club, which the club built in 1906. He served as president of the Club and was an active member until his death in 1971. 
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The 18th on The Highlands Course (site of the 1976 US Open)

Yours truly admiring the statue of Bobby Jones at the entrance to the Atlanta Athletic Club

The AAC`s magnificent clubhouse is chock full of golfing memorabilia enshrined in several themed rooms including Troon, Merion, Hoylake and of course the great Bobby Jones himself.

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Display from the AAC`s Bobby Jones room recording the Grand Slam

My parents John and Muriel Dalby - lifetime members of Hoylake - reached out to Atlanta Athletic Club when they visited in the late 1970`s and presented a watercolour of the course painted by Josh Armitage, a member of the club and long time cartoonist `Ionicus` for Punch magazine. This found a home in the Club`s Hoylake Room.
40 years later I finally got to visit and was pleased to present to the Club a black and white oil painting which shows Bobby Jones accepting the Open Championship Trophy at Hoylake in 1930 (shown above). This was copied from an archive newspaper photograph which wonderfully conveys the sense of respect, admiration and joy (just look at the expressions on the faces!) with which the members of the Club as well as the general public regarded Bobby Jones. The painting was gratefully received and will hopefully when framed find a place alongside other memorabilia on the wall of the Hoylake Room.
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Presenting the painting to the Chairman of AAC in the Hoylake Room