When Bobby Jones had his unparalleled year in 1930, he won the four biggest tournaments of his day: The US Amateur, the US Open, the British Amateur and the British Open Championship. It was a shocking achievement that made Jones a sports hero on a par with Babe Ruth—greater even, for the Babe never got a ticker tape parade in New York.

People struggled for words to describe the event. Atlanta Journal sports writer O.B. Keeler, Jones’ unofficial biographer and publicist, dubbed it the “Grand Slam,” borrowing not from baseball, but from a bridge term.

It must be remembered that, at that time, tournament golf was as much an amateur’s game as a pro’s. Walter Hagen may have been the only man at the time making a full time living playing tournament golf (as opposed to working as a club pro) .

So in 1960, after having won the Masters and US Open, Arnold Palmer was asked about Jones’ achievement by Pittsburgh sports writer Bob Drum on the plane flight to England where Palmer was to play in the Open Championship. Drum apparently lamented the fact that Palmer could not match Jones’ achievement because golf now was a pro’s game and not an amateur’s. No one would ever win the Amateur and Open national championships again.

Palmer then speculated that in the age of the professional, a more realistic Grand Slam would be the Masters, the US Open, the Open Championship (British Open) and the PGA Championship.

Palmer lost on the Old Course by a single stroke to Australia’s Kel Nagle.

But the dream had been indelibly etched into the mind of the golfing public.

The Turnberry Golf Course—which will host the 2009 British Open Championship—is up for sale. It’s expected to fetch 100 million pounds.

I’ll get out my checkbook.

Doug Ferguson—one of my favorite golf writers—has a profile of British Open Championship winner Padraig Harrington. He seems like a good guy, and I’m glad that a European has finally broken the drought in Majors.

Why is the (British) Open Championship better than the US Open?

One word: birdies

They actually have them as a part of normal play.

Sergio’s taking a lot of heat for his supposed choke on the last day of the Open Championship. I just don’t see it that way. He didn’t play bad golf—just passive golf. His gameplan was conservative and for the most part, he stuck to it, hitting long irons off the tee to keep the ball in play and avoid trouble.

It’s not a bad game plan. Certainly it’s Tiger’s basic strategy: when in front, play a conservative game; let others make mistakes trying to catch you.

But critics are wondering why he didn’t hit a few drivers, leaving himself with more short irons to the green.

Can you imagine the second guessing if Garcia had come up short using a more aggressive plan that involved hitting a lot of drivers? Golf pundits would hammer him for being too audacious. Look at the beating Van de Velde and Mickelson have taken for hitting driver on the final hole of their near wins.

The fact of the matter is that it just wasn’t his weekend. He had a couple of bad breaks that—if they had gone the other way—would have given him the Claret Jut.

Sergio will win Majors—several of them. He has too much talent not to. And don’t forget—although he seemingly has been around forever—Garcia is just twenty seven. Mickelson didn’t win his first Major until he was thirty four. Padraig Harrington—this year’s Open Championship winner—has won his first major at age thirty six.