Among famous golf heroes who participated in the Normandy Landings, you can count Bobby Jones, the only player to ever achieve Golf’s mythical Grand Slam. The Grand Slam is when a golfer wins all four of the major golfing tournaments in a calendar year, which Jones did in 1930, and many consider him one of the most influential and significant golfers of all time. Already long retired from golf by the time World War II broke out, Jones joined the U.S. Army Air Force in 1942 just after the Attack on Pearl Harbor.
In 1943, Jones got his first taste of action in the 9th Air Force as an intelligence officer, and he began training under Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower in early 1944 for the D-Day invasion. Jones’ unit went into action at Normandy on June 7, the day after the initial landings, where he and his unit faced enemy fire. After two days on the beaches, Jones soon moved further inland, where his unit interrogated German POWs who were captured during the fighting.
Not too long after participating in the D-Day invasion, Jones, who was a major at Normandy, was promoted to lieutenant colonel and discharged in August 1944. After the war, Jones rejoined the golf world, where he reopened the legendary Peachtree Golf Club in Atlanta, which had been shuttered during the war.
