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Please take note of the Thompson TEES Off icon. Every place you see this icon, click on it to subscribe. An annual subscription is only $30 a year -- less than 60 cents an issue -- filled with exclusive, local content delivered to your in-box every Thursday. Club. This was in conjunction with Roebuck's second annual invitation tournament and Thursday, July 22 marked the first round of the championship. That very evening the AGA came to life under the eye of John M. "Jock" Inglis, head of the Greens Committee at Montgomery Country Club. Fast forward to the evening of Sept. 5, after the first round of the first Alabama Championship Tour- nament (the precursor of the State Amateur), and George Stuart of Montgomery was installed Presi- dent of the Alabama Golf Association and Inglis was named Secretary and Treasurer. The Alabama Golf Association was on its way. A very interesting footnote is that 13-year-old Bob Jones of Atlanta won that Roebuck Springs in- vitation tournament. Yes, the one and same Bobby Jones who would win what would be called the Grand Slam of Golf in 1930 and go on to form Au- gusta National and the Masters Tournament. Jones would also win The Country Club of Birmingham National Invitational, which began in 1913, in 1916 and 1920. 1915 The first State Amateur champion was Jack Al- lison of Birmingham, who was a cousin of the late 25th President of the United States, William McKin- ley, who had been assassinated in 1901. Allison worked for his father Major Charles J. Allison, clerk of the United States Court, and defeated Judge N.R. Clarke of Mobile 13 & 12 in the 36- hole match play final at Montgomery Country Club. He held a commanding 9 up lead after 18 holes and subse- quently ran out an easy winner. The Sept. 12 issue of the Birming- ham News described Allison as "…a clean-cut chap of athletic build and extremely fond of sports." The Birmingham News recounted friends hearing of Allison's play… "When the Birmingham friends of Jack Allison received the news that he had obtained the lead on Judge Clarke…they became wildly interested and The News telephones were kept busy answering inquiries as to the result. When the final result came in and the glad news was handed out it was met with cheers. "'Say, how'd Jack come out?' was one inquiry Saturday night. The reply that he had landed the ba- con brought a volley of cheers which told the large group at the other end of the line." Allison was also the medalist with an 81, which according to Bob Phillips, long-time Birmingham Post-Herald Sports editor and columnist, as well as the secretary of the AGA for many, many years, was "a rather neat score in that day, and he went on to defy the traditional medalist jinx by breezing to a 13-12 victory…" First Lieutenant Jack Stewart Allison, whose life would be cut short just three years later when he was killed in action in France during World War I, was a fine golfer of the day having won the Bir- mingham City Championship earlier that year at the Country Club of Birmingham." Click here to view a 16-page "Flipbook" of select pages from the book. The book is now available for purchase through the Alabama Golf Association via their website: www.bamagolf.com or by calling (205) 979-1234. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. ALABAMA GOLF ASSOCIATION: THE FIRST 100 YEARS