Bobby Jones - Stroke of Genius is a dream come true for producer Kim Dawson. It took him 13 years to bring the project to the screen. "I first heard about Bobby Jones when I was a kid," he says, "but always from a golfing point of view. Years later, when I heard that the story was available to be made into a film, I started to learn more about the man and became so impressed with the complexity of the story and the struggles that Bobby Jones went through to achieve what he did - not just in golf, but in life. It struck me that if this story was told with a great script on a big screen, it would really capture the hearts of the film-going public."
It was a daunting task, and Dawson ran into roadblocks much of the way. "Someone in New York was trying to make an unauthorized biography of Bobby Jones as a movie-of-the-week for CBS," explains Dawson. "The network was lukewarm about it and the Jones family was unhappy. There was a lot at stake. Bobby Jones' stature in the game is very important to his family, so much so that they formed a family corporation, not so much to exploit Bobby Jones' name and likeness, but to protect it."
The family would not move forward to release the rights to Dawson until the New York filmmaker was out of the way. "I met the family lawyer, Marty Elgison of Alston and Bird, the law firm founded by Jones," explains Dawson. "He became my supporter from day one. I think we were aligned in spirit about how the project should be done and Marty, who represents all the Jones' heirs, opened the door for me." Dawson helped the family negotiate a settlement with the filmmaker in New York, actually paying him off out of his own pocket.
With the rights back on the table, the surviving members of the family, including Clara, Jones' daughter, and five grandchildren, gathered for a family meeting. "I pitched my idea to them," says Dawson, "and they liked it enough to allow me to go forward. I promised them, and in my agreement with them, am contractually bound, to tell the story truthfully and honestly and not denigrate the name of Bobby Jones, with the understanding that in filmmaking certain dramatic licenses with historical facts have to be considered."
With the rights in hand, Dawson began developing the project. Luck was with him, for on his first trip to Augusta, Ga., he met legendary golfer Charlie Yates, a contemporary of Jones, who was his mentor. He told the producer that his dream "would be like playing a very, very long round of golf, to be extremely patient and take it one shot at a time." His prophesy turned out to be true.
"I needed a lot of perseverance to continue this journey," says Dawson. "When you have kids and a family of your own, and you've literally spent your life savings and a good deal of your time, it can become difficult to carry on. But I always had Charlie's blessing and spiritual support. I think even Jones himself was watching over me and gave me hope."
His perseverance paid off and in 2002, Dawson felt the time was right to approach Rick Eldridge, a colleague at Universal Studios and who was also represented by the same attorney, Greg Galloway. Eldridge came aboard as executive producer. "Bobby Jones' name was plastered everywhere for his 100th birthday," he says. "So it seemed like a great opportunity to make a movie at the height of all this exposure around the Masters and his birthday.
"The background is golf," he continues, "but that's where it ends. As I learned more about Bobby Jones, I saw the story behind the story as one of an exceptional man. An individual, devoted to his wife and children, who never wanted to be famous. His life is full of twists and turns, all centered around golf, because that was what he's best known for, but I felt there was a more important story to tell. It was our job to find the perfect writer and director."

A Whole in One
Dawson had a personal vision about how the writer and director should approach the project. "I always felt it was a director's film," he says, "that it really needed the writer and director to be of one mind. If they were the same person, that would be alright, too."
Several writers and directors were identified and invited to come in and meet Dawson and Eldridge.
Each person was given the same material and then asked to come back with ideas on how they would tell the story. "Rowdy Herrington really had a passion for the story and definitely, beyond a doubt, convinced us that he was the guy. He sees this as his Chariots of Fire."
"I'm an avid golfer and I knew who Bobby Jones was," explains Herrington, "so my initial reaction when I heard about the project was both elation and fear. Elation because it's an amazing opportunity to dramatize a man's life that is so rich in character and complexities. Fearful because it can only be told once and it must be done well. Bobby Jones was such an exemplary character - he lived his life so well - that I felt to be involved, I had to be able to make it come to life on the screen." Herrington knew from the very first meeting how passionate Kim Dawson was about the project and how careful he wanted to be in selecting the people who were going to realize the dream. "One of the things that I tell my crew is that enthusiasm is contagious, and I don't think you'll find a producer with more enthusiasm for a project than Kim on Bobby Jones, and that set the tone. I'd had a chance to read the screenplay that had been written some years before, and I sat down with him and Rick Eldridge and basically told them what I thought needed to be done structurally to make the story work."
Dawson listened carefully as Herrington outlined his vision of Bobby Jones - following the arc of his character from a child to an adult, then a leader and finally a visionary. "Rowdy looked me straight in the eyes," says Dawson, "and said, 'This is not only what I want to do, but I can do it in a way that nobody else would ever do it.' I was sold."
And so was the Jones family. "They bought into that same vision," continues Eldridge. "The family had the right to review and approve the script. Bob Jones IV, Bobby's grandson, knew a lot of history and gave a tremendous amount of insight to the story. The family came together and embraced the script as Rowdy wrote it. The Jones family was very much a part of the process."

A Foursome
With Herrington on board and a script in hand, it was time for the team to find the perfect cast. They began by looking for the actors who would play the four key roles - Bobby Jones, Mary Jones, Walter Hagen and O. B. Keeler.
"We originally envisioned an actor who could swing a golf club the way that Bobby Jones did," says Dawson. "We wanted to be as authentic as possible. We were sending out scripts and sent one to Jim Caviezel for the role of Walter Hagen, Jones' great competitor and friend. He got it, called and said, 'I'll do Hagen, but I can do Bobby Jones. I can play this role.' We asked him how good he was at golf and he said, 'Don't worry about it, I can play Bobby Jones. I'll get the swing.'
"Assuming that he was an avid golfer" continues Dawson, " we had him come in and found out that he didn't play golf at all and knew very little about the game. But he was kind of like Rowdy. He looked me straight in the eyes and said, 'I can do this,' and I knew that he could.
"I had long anticipated, but never expected to get an actor of Jim's stature" Dawson confesses.
"He's such an amazingly intense actor and such a warm and kind hearted person that as soon as we met, I knew that the parallel between him and Jones was perfect."
"Jim is a wonderful, giving actor," adds Herrington. "And he's dedicated. His commitment to this role is phenomenal. The amount of hours he put in on the practice tee to get the most beautiful swing in history, is just exemplary. He has so many facets to his personality that he takes on a role like Bobby Jones and he becomes that man. It's a beautiful thing to watch."
Jim Caviezel stepped up to the tee as Bobby Jones because of the script. He says, "I'm always looking for a good script and asking myself, 'What's the story?' The first time I read Stroke of Genius, I saw something personal inside Bobby Jones' heart. I saw him as someone pure who played golf for the love of it. I felt like I just had to play the role."
Caviezel found the role to be a different kind of challenge. "Everybody in Georgia knows how BobbyJones talked, walked, ate, spit and drank," he explains. "I've had people come up to me and say, 'You know, you're too tall to be Bobby Jones. Why did they cast you? You're not from Georgia. Why did they cast you?' I'd just politely answer, 'Well, it's because I'm an actor, sir. That's what I do.' Most of the time, it worked."
Claire Forlani, who plays Jones' wife, knew little about Bobby Jones and was drawn to the script rather than the character. "From what I learned about Mary," she says, "I thought the script had truly captured her essence." She continues, "It's such a beautiful love story, and it's true. Bobby was a good man, and I'm sure that Mary was good as well. It's uplifting, and we need more people like that in our movies.
"There's a beautiful story, which is true, that later in life when Bobby Jones was on the second floor in a wheelchair, a fire started in the house," recounts the actress. "Mary couldn't get him out so she just sat next to him and prepared to die with him. That story, to me, showed who she was and how deep their love went. I feel that's definitely in the film that we're making."
The character of Walter Hagen was another important casting decision for the filmmakers. When Dawson met Clara, Bobby Jones' daughter, who has since passed away, she told him that Jones was great friends with Hagen, one of his main rivals on the golf course, but that his mother, Clara, really didn't like Walter's influence on Bobby. He was a raconteur who not only loved the game of golf but loved life and lived it to its fullest.
"Walter Hagen was a professional," explains Dawson. "He knew he was going to make his living playing golf and he did it with grace and fellowship that was somewhat uncommon to a person with his proclivities for living the high life. It was important that just the right actor be found to fill Hagen's shoes.
Probably the most important person in Jones' life - next to his wife Mary - was O. B. Keeler. A sports writer for the Atlanta Journal, he had won national recognition and fame as a writer and authority on golf. He saw 14 year old Bobby Jones win his first big tournament and became his close companion. He traveled 150,000 miles with Jones and is the only man to witness all of Jones' 13 championship wins, most notably the Grand Slam victories in 1930.
"O. B. and Bobby shared so much in common," says Dawson. "They had a love of literature, great love of the game of golf and classical music, and they were also writing partners. Because of all this, we felt that we needed an actor of not just great intelligence but great experience in acting and in life. We went
through a range of candidates but when we heard that Malcolm McDowell was available.
Unlike his two co-stars, Malcolm McDowell says he was not attracted to the role of Keeler because of the script. "And it wasn't the money," explains the actor with a devilish twinkle in his eye. "To be honest, it was the golf. I'm addicted to the game and they got me at a weak moment. I must say, I've had the best time on this film because the two things I love the most - besides my wife and family - are acting and playing golf, and I'm getting to do both in one project. They promised me golf and they delivered! "But it's not just a story about golf, you know," he adds seriously. "Golf is a big part of it, yes, but it's really a story of the human spirit. For me as an actor, this film has been a gift - getting to know who Bobby Jones really was. Rowdy was able to help tremendously. Because he wrote the script, he could tell me a lot about him. Jones was a true gentleman and a true amateur who played because he loved the game. It'sabout the human condition and all the facets of that. And that is more important than knowing that O. B. Keeler wrote those wonderful articles on Bobby Jones."

Staying in Motion
Production designer Bruce Allen Miller was brought on board by Herrington to design both Scotland
and Atlanta. The two had worked together previously and been friends for 25 years. "It's like working with family," says Herrington. "Bruce is phenomenally talented and what he was able to accomplish with a very small budget was spectacular."
In the opening scene of Bobby Jones - Stroke of Genius, Jones returns to St. Andrews to play a round of golf. It's 1936 and he has retired from the game. Since the town of St. Andrews has changed little over the years, it didn't take much for the filmmakers to recreate the scene.
"The city of St. Andrews and all the buildings around it are exactly as they were when Jones returned," explains Dawson. "The Royal and Ancient Golf Club hasn't changed either. Maybe a bit on the golf course where they've added irrigation, but audiences will believe that it's period."
Miller agrees with Dawson. "St. Andrews," he says, "is like a little museum once you remove a few signs. And because it's an historical town, when you cover up the modern windows, it's still an old town. The walls have been there for hundreds of years."
The designer feels that his biggest challenge was dressing the town square at St. Andrews. "We could only begin to dress that sequence at 5:00 the night before," he says, "and we had to be finished by 11:00am the next morning so that the town could open up.
"The town council helped a lot. They sent two guys out who have a plan of St. Andrews and go about taking down light poles and street signs - everything you don't want there. They actually scouted with us in the town and on the golf course so that they could see what we needed them to remove. Then they put it back up. I wish American cities would do this."
Finished with St. Andrews, Miller and his team had to concentrate on the scenes on the golf courses. "We knew that American golf courses looked totally different than European golf courses," he says, "especially the older ones, so we eliminated shooting any American courses in Scotland. All the tournaments that Bobby Jones played were shot at St. Andrews or Kings Barn in Scotland or in the U.S. at Chateau Elan, Georgia's sister course to St. Andrews. The courses weren't a problem for me. It was more difficult for Rowdy, who had to turn the camera around so that it wasn't always pointed at the North Sea."
Faced with a 36 day shooting schedule in two countries, Miller knew that he would have to compromise on what he thought was really important to the director "I've worked with Rowdy before so I'm aware of his directing style," he explains, "and how he comes to a project. This one was very ambitious and we didn't have a lot of money. My question was 'can we do this and not mess up the period look of the film.'
I knew from the first that I would have to compromise on what I thought was important so that Rowdy could get everything shot in the day."
This meant that Miller had to prepare from four to six different sets, sometimes at the same location, so that the production team could move from one to the other easily. With some of the sets accommodating up to 100 extras in period costumes, as well as 100 crew members, there was no time for big moves. "We didn't have the prep time or design time to do a vast amount of research," says Miller. "So we just went with the period and created what was appropriate. There were times we'd have only two days to get things ready. We learned to hustle."
The house that acted as the Jones family home, when Bobby was a young boy, was a county museum that was used for weddings. It had to meet OSHA requirements as well as building codes, causing Miller and his crew some unearned headaches. He explains, "We had to cover or make disappear all the heating vents, the light switches, the sprinkler system that was hanging on the walls, the thermostats and, most specifically, the curtains. They had curtains and blinds on the windows to keep out the sun so that the fabrics wouldn't get damaged, but they were not period at all, so we changed a lot of those. We changed out the furniture as well because we didn't want to damage what they had."

Music on the Wind
There were a lot of people who felt that because Bobby Jones - Stroke of Genius was an independent film with a limited budget, the producers and director had to be realistic about who they wanted to compose the music for the film. But they all had in mind one man - James Horner, the Academy Award-winner and 2003 nominee for his score for House of Sand and Fog.
"One of the things that attracted me to this project," says Horner, is the legendary nature of who Bobby Jones was and the beautiful way this was expressed in this film. Jones' story was one of extraordinary skill, talent and accomplishment that was matched by great humility and courage. In Bobby Jones - Stroke of Genius," continues the composer, "Rowdy Herrington has made an exquisite film that provides a wonderful canvas for music. I'm so thrilled and honored to have been asked to compose the score."

The Grand Slam
When Bobby Jones - Stroke of Genius opens in theaters around the country on April 30, 2004, Kim Dawson's dream will be almost complete. "When I first started this project, I had in mind what people might say as they were exiting the theater. There's one that keeps coming back to me - 'I'm glad I went to see that picture. It lifted my heart!' Bobby Jones has this special spirit about him... that there's a reason to live that's more than winning a golf tournament or doing well in a courtroom - whatever it is. His approach to life and love was to do it as well as you could, give it your best effort and be proud of that effort. And in the end, if you've done that, you can hold your head high and walk out into the world and smile. I think, for the most part, that people who see this film will walk out of the theater with that same feeling. Then my dream will be totally complete."

Jones was the most beloved golfer of his time, by his colleagues as well as his fans.
He treated everyone with respect and courtesy and was a true sportsman.
He instinctively shifted the spotlight away from himself.
He cherished his privacy and always felt quite nervous in front of a large gallery.
In essence he simply played a game he was enchanted with.
From His Strength of Mind by Dave Anderson