Synopses & Reviews
The Masters golf tournament weaves a hypnotic spell. It is the toughest ticket in sports, with black-market tickets selling for $10,000 and more. Success at Augusta National breeds legends, while failure can overshadow even the most brilliant of careers. As it is the only major golf tournament to return to the same site year after year, much of the fascination is historical.
But as Curt Sampson, author of the bestselling Hogan, reveals in The Masters, a cold heart beats behind the warm antebellum façade of this famous Augusta course. And that heart belongs to the man who killed himself on the grounds two decades ago. Club and tournament founder Clifford Roberts, a New York stockbroker, still seems to run the place from his grave. Roberts, an elusive and reclusive figure, pulled the strings that made the Masters the greatest golf tournament in the world. His story--including his relationships with presidents, power brokers, and every golf champion from Bobby Jones to Arnold Palmer to Jack Nicklaus--has never been told. Until now.
No mere recitation of birdies, bogeys, and tourna-ment winners, The Masters is the intricate tale of the interplay among the town, the tournament, and the club. It is an amazing slice of history, taking us inside the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Augusta's most famous member. It is a look at how the new South coexists with the old South: the relationships between blacks and whites, between Southerners and North-erners, between rich and poor. It is a portrait of a tournament unlike any other as well as the town in which it lives and breathes--with such characters as James Brown, the Godfather of Soul; the great boxer Beau Jack; and Frank Stranahan, the playboy golfer and the only white pro ever banned from the tournament.
The Masters is a book that is certain to cause controversy yet will reinforce one's love for and dedication to the sport's greatest event. It is just as certain that The Masters will be the golf book of the year.
Synopsis
From the author of the bestselling Hogan, a book that shares the thrilling history of the masters golf tournament -- and reveals its controversial secrets.
Long revered as the most prestigious tournament in golf, what has become known as the Masters has many triumphant moments in its history -- and just as many skeletons in its closet. In The Masters, Curt Sampson tells the entire dramatic story, beginning in 1933 with the creation of the Augusta National Golf Club -- highlighting the skillful wins and heartbreaking losses of the tournament's most famous names: Jones, Hogan, Sarazen, Nelson, Snead, Nicklaus, Palmer, Norman, Faldo -- and bringing the story up to date with the astounding arrival of Tiger Woods.
But Sampson doesn't stop there. The Masters is a complete picture of the Georgia town, the politics, the racism, the finances, the media involvement -- every single aspect of it that affects the greatest of all tournaments. The Masters has remained elusive and mysterious until now for a very good reason: The club has kept tight control on all media exposure. Now, Sampson brings to light the inside stories -- not only from the greens and the fairways, but also from the clubhouse and the boardrooms and the stately Southern drawing rooms. Meticulously researched and wonderfully told, The Masters is the golf book of the season.
About the Author
Curt Sampson was a junior, amateur, and college golfer. He has written three other books: The Eternal Summer, Full Court Pressure, and Hogan.
Sampson lives in Ennis, Texas, with his wife and two children.