Grandson of legendary golfer congratulates Future Masters

They’re running out of places to stick feathers in the Future Masters’ hat.

A signed hole flag from the PGA Tour’s St. Jude Classic is prominently displayed near the scorer’s table. It belongs to Future Masters alumnus and Daleville native Brian Gay, who won the tournament two weeks ago as well as the Verizon Heritage in April.

On the entrance to the front door is a picture of a 12-year-old Lucas Glover holding a Future Masters Age Group trophy. Glover won the U.S. Open Monday.

But if the junior golf championship needed anything else to legitimize itself after 60 years of crowning young winners, it came in the form of a typed letter from the grandson of one of golf’s greatest icons.

“Congratulations on the 60th Anniversary of the Future Masters,” the letter begins, written by Robert Tyre Jones IV, the grandson of legendary golfer and Masters Golf Tournament creator Bobby Jones Jr. “For more than half a century, the Future Masters has made an indelible mark on junior golf, providing a championship test for young golfers of all ages.”

Bobby Jones Jr. is the only golfer to win his era’s golfing Grand Slam (the Open and Amateur championships in the United States and Britain) in a single year. He retired at 28, and went on to create The Masters golf tournament, first played in 1934.

Fifteen years later, Jones. Jr. and Cliff Roberts (chairman of the Masters from 1934-1976) gave their blessing to use the “Masters” name in Dothan’s fledgling junior golf tournament.

“When my grandfather, Bobby Jones, was a boy, there were no junior golf championships. A player had simply to learn the game on his own and then proceed to the national stage where he would either sink or swim,” Jones IV wrote. “The Future Masters changed all that.

“When Clifford Roberts and my grandfather gave this permission, they could not have been aware of the impact that your tournament would have on the game,” Jones IV wrote further.

Dr. Press Thornton, general chairman of the Future Masters Golf Tournament, said the letter will hold a special place at the tournament.

“It’s very special to us, particularly the name of Bobby Jones, it’s a great recognition,” Thornton said. “It is good to re-emphasize that blessing that the Masters gave us.”