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The Masters: Golf, Money, and Power in Augusta, Georgia
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 796
EAN: 9780375753374
ISBN: 0375753370
Label: Villard
Manufacturer: Villard
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 304
Publication Date: March 16, 1999
Publisher: Villard
Release Date: March 16, 1999
Studio: Villard
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Editorial Review:
Curt Sampson follows his exceptional biography of Ben Hogan with another sweeping exploration of one of golf's icier hearts: Augusta National and the powers behind the Masters. A combination of history, sociology, and good old sports writing, The Masters counterpoints a rich, white institution with the town surrounding it that is anything but. Ultimately, the book tells the story of a singular sporting experience--and the marvelous drama it has provided--that manages to succeed spectacularly despite the arrogance, dourness, and manipulations of the homogenous bastion that deigns to let the rest of the world intrude upon its exclusiveness for one week every April.
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. 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. An elusive and reclusive figure, Roberts pulled the strings that made the Masters the greatest golf tournament in the world. His story--including his relationship with presidents, power brokers, and every golf champion from Bobby Jones to Arnold Palmer to Jack Nicklaus--has never been told. Until now.
The Masters 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 Northerners, between rich and poor--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 spellbinding portrait of a tournament unlike any other.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Vindictive for no reason
True, every event just like every person has to some degree a "dark side" this book however fails to truly reveal any concrete evidence and instead relies on the weakest of circumstantial evidence in an attempt to paint the golf tournament as a mirror to the past of the South. Rather than being a scholarly and well balanced approach, this reads more like something out of the National Enquirer. Sampson just goes out of his way to try to make anything associated with Augusta seem in some way wrong ... Read More
Rating:  - Lots of Fun
Sampson doesn't pretend to write an objective history of Augusta National and the Masters. This book is all about the crabgrass and bare spots in the fairway. Picking and choosing his "facts" and with a colorful writing style, the author dumps on most everyone associated with Masters, Augusta National Golf (not Country) Club, and even the City of Augusta. Though most of his venom is directed toward Cliff Roberts, the club's founder and original czar, even Bobby Jones comes across as something less ... Read More
Rating: - Provocative Insights into The Club and Tournamet
If Sampson's probe is anywhere near the truth, it surely smudges the high place we give to Augusta and The Masters.
Certainly, it still revolves around Jones, and it always has. The legend of this amateur and supposed gentleman is tarnished by his association with Roberts and his seizure of power and control of what has become golfing legend.
Without the champion's name and backing and tournament, The Masters and Augusta would be just another club and tour stop. But from the outset it was ... Read More
Rating:  - The Masters: The real story
Author Curt Sampson captures the birth and life of one of the most famous sporting events in the world, The Masters golf tournament. Played annually in Augusta, Georgia, this prestigious golf tournament has become the new face of golf. Mr. Sampson shows us how this once unknown place, turned into a sanctuary for some of the greatest golfers of all time. He gets deep into how it was started by a group of New York business men, only 68 years after the Civil War. He shows us how although, one of the most ... Read More
Rating: - Easily the best book ever on The Masters
Curt Sampson is the best golf writer around, and this book is an excellent followup to that best of all golf biographies, Hogan. Some reviewers have criticized him for casting a cold eye on Clifford Roberts, the fanatical creator of the Masters, but I'm glad he's dug out the truth--it's much more fascinating, by the way. And his look at how the club has affected the area and town around it is quite interesting. His writing, though, is what I love--wonderfully crafted sentences by a fine writer. This is ... Read More
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