Of all the hickory and steel-shafted clubs that bear the inscription “Robt. T. Jones Jr.,” few are as famous as the putter Jones used, Calamity Jane. When the club debuted in the Spalding catalog in 1932, it was billed as “an exact duplicate” of the offset blade Jones had been playing with, during a period of unparalleled success. With such an endorsement, it soon became popular and remained so for years. The putter had a dull chrome finish and initially featured a wooden shaft, later changed to steel. In the 1960s, Spalding introduced another Calamity Jane, stamped a little differently and finished in shiny chrome. And in 1976, Jack Nicklaus, a student of history and, of course, an admirer of Jones, had 250 exact replicas of the original made, complete with an “authentic coating of rust.” He gave them as souvenirs to participants in the pro-am of his inaugural Memorial Tournament.
There are several theories as to how and when Bobby Jones acquired the original Calamity Jane. Some erroneously claim it was a gift from his mother. The actual source was Jimmy Maiden, the former Scottish pro at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta whose brother, Stewart, taught Jones the game. But just when Maiden gave it to him remains grist for debate. A few historians, based on vintage photographs, say the gift came on the eve of the 1923 United States Open. Others, perhaps more accurately, cite a letter Jones wrote decades later saying Maiden gave him the club three years earlier, after Jones had lost to Francis Ouimet in the Amateur at Engineers’ Country Club in September 1920. The club had been crafted by a cleekmaker in St. Andrews named Robert Condie. The moniker Calamity Jane was Maiden’s.
Little known about Jones’ Calamity Jane is that there were actually two of them. Given his fondness for the club, Spalding made a half dozen copies of it in 1926 for his personal use. Jones gave a few of them away to friends, but substituted one of the copies for the original in his bag after it became damaged from endless polishing. According to J. Victor East, who duplicated the original Calamity Jane for Spalding, Jones opted for the new putter because “his caddies’ constant twisting of the emery cloth to indicate the … ‘sweet spot’ eventually caused a tiny depression.” Jones went on to win his last ten major championships with the putter, now known as Calamity Jane II.
Both of the Calamity Janes that Jones used have become treasured pieces from golf’s past. He donated the original to Augusta National. Calamity Jane II he gave to the United States Golf Association. It can be seen on display at Golf House, the USGA museum in Far Hills, New Jersey. Like the original, the shaft of the putter is clearly cracked along its length. Three sections of whipping—needed to firm up the hickory after Jones had damaged it in moments of disgust—still remain. They seem to indicate that despite the many triumphs Jones had with the putter, Calamity Jane, at least on occasion, lived up to her name.