The Tour Championship heads into its final round Sunday, with Scottie Scheffler holding a cavernous advantage atop the FedEx Cup standings. In the meantime, Viktor Hovland, Ryan Gerard, and several others remain in contention for the event, all chasing the ultimate prize at East Lake: the trophy bearing the nickname of golf legend Bobby Jones’s favourite putter, ‘Calamity Jane.’ 

But why, exactly, does the event trophy carry that name? To put it simply, the Tour Championship trophy pays tribute to Bobby Jones and his deep connection to East Lake Golf Club. And how that came to be is one of golf’s most incredible stories. 

Jones, an Atlanta native, is one of golf’s greatest players and the only person to win the original Grand Slam in 1930. It involved winning the U.S. Open, U.S. Amateur, British Open, and British Amateur in the same year. But his connection to East Lake is much deeper, as he played his first rounds of golf around 1908 at six. 

He also played his last round of golf there in 1948, the year a spinal disease forced him to give up the game for good, more than two decades before his death in 1971. He also won many of his early junior and amateur titles at the club. Yet that is only part of the story behind the Tour Championship trophy and its connection to ‘Calamity Jane.’

The nickname was given to the putter by Jim Maiden, the brother of Jones’s instructor, who named it after Martha ‘Calamity Jane’ Cannary, a famed figure of the American Wild West known for her sharp shooting and tales of heroism. Maiden’s reasoning was fitting: he believed the putter would bring calamity to Jones’s opponents on the course.

Jones went on to use ‘Calamity Jane’ for much of his illustrious career. Remarkably, when a fire destroyed the East Lake clubhouse in 1925, nearly all of Jones’s clubs were lost, but ‘Calamity Jane’ survived.

The club itself was a goose-necked, hickory-shafted blade putter, about 33½ inches long, with a rusty, well-worn look that Jones himself described as far from new when he got it. The original, known as “Calamity Jane I,” is now housed at Augusta National, while “Calamity Jane II,” the club he used for his final ten major wins including the 1930 Grand Slam, is on display at the USGA Museum in Far Hills, New Jersey.

When East Lake later became the home of the Tour Championship, the club chose to honor Jones’s legacy by awarding champions a replica of his iconic putter. In 2017, tournament organizers made ‘Calamity Jane’ the event’s official trophy, replacing the previous crystal trophy and further strengthening the historic connection between Jones, East Lake, and the Tour Championship.

Jones’s ties to the club run even deeper: he served as president of East Lake Golf Club from 1946 to 1947. He also did a great deal more for the sport itself.

Bobby Jones founded the Masters tournament

After completing his Grand Slam in 1930, the then 28-year-old Jones retired from competitive golf and turned his attention to building an ideal course with Clifford Roberts. They selected the former Fruitland Nurseries site in Augusta, and the construction began during the depths of the Great Depression. Although the pair initially hoped to bring the U.S. Open to Augusta National, those plans never materialized. 

Instead, Jones and Roberts decided to create their own annual tournament, one that would bring the world’s best golfers to the course. The inaugural Augusta National Invitation Tournament was held in March 1934. Jones was initially reluctant to compete, preferring to serve as an official. However, Roberts recalled that he eventually agreed after being reminded that he could hardly invite his friends to play his course and then refuse to join them. 

Jones finished with a 76 in the opening round, while Horton Smith ultimately claimed the title. Years later in 1939, the Augusta National Invitation Tournament officially changed its name to the Masters Tournament.

That being said, Bobby Jones’ contribution to the sport is so massive that the Tour Championship’s trophy is named after him.