Tom Buggy

Ray Billows - The Cinderella Kid Tom Buggy

In 1935, just five years after the great Bob Jones won his Grand Slam and retired from competition, a 20-year-old amateur golfer in a struggling family left Racine WI for a $17-a-week shipping clerk job in Poughkeepsie NY. Ray Billows brought with him a self-taught golf game from the caddie ranks, a gritty determination, and wondrous dreams of competing at the highest level of amateur golf. He brought little else. This book tells his story, a story that is sprinkled with thrilling golf, wonderful success, cruel disappointment, personal highlights, humorous anecdotes with Bob Jones, the Duke of Windsor, Babe Ruth and others, and a player's reputation as one of the finest gentlemen in the game. Illustrated with 30 photographs, the book also provides a snapshot of amateur golf in the 1930s and 1940s.