April 8, 1886 in Lelant, Cornwall, England
May 24, 1966
Long Jim
20
4
• 1916 PGA Championship
• 1919 PGA Championship
• 1921 U.S. Open
• 1925 British Open
Member, World Golf Hall of Fame
• Golf writer Bernard Darwin on Jim Barnes: "His finish was a model for a tall man who is inclined to spring up too soon after the ball is hit. Everything he did was pleasant to watch."
• From New York Times article, 1916: "All that Barnes needs to win a golf tournament is a golf course, a putter, and a liberal supply of the clover leaves that he carries in the corner of his mouth."
Jim Barnes is the only U.S. Open winner to be presented the trophy by the U.S. president. President Warren G. Harding was on hand to give Barnes the trophy following Barnes' 1921 U.S. Open championship.
Jim Barnes was born in England, and worked as a caddie and clubmaker before becoming an assistant pro at the ripe old age of 15.
He immigrated to the U.S. in 1906, moving to San Francisco, and would eventually become a U.S. citizen.
At 6-foot-4 inches, Barnes was one of the tallest players of his era, and was one of the longest hitters, both of which led to his nickname of "Long Jim."
Barnes began winning big events on the pro circuit in 1914, when he won the first of his three Western Open titles. (The Western Open, at that time, was considered a major title.)
The PGA Tour was founded in 1916, and Barnes was one of its dominant players over the first half-dozen years of its existance. He led the young tour in victories in 1916 (3), 1917 (2, tied with Mike Brady), 1919 (5) and 1921 (4).
He also won the first two PGA Championships ever played. The first was in 1916, but the second - because of World War I - wasn't played until 1919. In 1921, Barnes added a U.S. Open crown, and in 1925 the British Open.
Along the way, Barnes produced one of the first highly popular golf instructional books written by a professional golfer, a photo book entitled, "Picture Analysis of Golf Strokes."
His U.S. Open title was won by nine strokes, a record for margin of victory that stood until Tiger Woods broke it 80 years later.
Barnes continued playing the PGA Tour through the 1920s and in the 1930s. His final victory came at the age of 53 in the 1939 New Jersey Open.
Jim Barnes was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1989.
