| The Masters: Library Edition |  | Author: Curt Sampson
Creator: Barrett Whitener
Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $15.72
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Avg. Customer Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 3484511
Format: Mp3 Audio
Media: MP3 CD
Edition: MP3
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.4 x 5.4 x 0.4
ISBN: 0786190132
Dewey Decimal Number: 796
EAN: 9780786190133
ASIN: 0786190132
Publication Date: May 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Requires MP3 compatible player. Brand New! UNABRIDGED audiobook on MP3-CD direct from the manufacturer.
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Amazon.com
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.
Product Description
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 facade 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 15 more reviews...
 Vindictive for no reason March 16, 2008
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 or evil. Really an atrociously terrible book, even the writing style couldn't salvage this one. I regret having the misfortune to have purchased and read this one.
 Lots of Fun October 22, 2005
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 than the golfing saint he's often portrayed to be. Interestingly, the last chapter of the edition I read introduces Hootie Johnson as the new club president, in whom Sampson seems to see a ray of hope. Obviously, that chapter was written before Johnson's go-around with Martha Burke.
Provocative Insights into The Club and Tournamet March 24, 2003
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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 Bobby who kept it together. Then the illness and pulling away, and the inroads of Cliff and the rest is history, here well documented by one of the great golf writers. Sampson again weaves his literary magic with different piercing vignettes of the personalities and events which have led to Augusta lore and legend. Story upon story from various facets permeate this fluid read--from club caddie to townfolk to neglected member and player -- one is given much to contemplate. The tales are superb, sampling but a few: the caddie deliberately overclubbing Robert's opponent on a Par 3 course contest; Dave Marr's respone to Arnie that even his divot cleared Rae's Creek on 15; the asst. pro's wife being offered big money for the rope marker that only quandred off souvenir sales. Augusta appears to be the premier "ole boys" club. If you want scoop about it's past and insights possibly into its present, this read will begin that path.
 The Masters: The real story April 3, 2001
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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 famed golf course in the world has always been dampered by the reputation for being a racist society. He explains how that when Tiger Woods won the Masters in 1997, Augusta and the Masters had come full swing from what it once was. This book goes well into detail about things the common person would have never known or been able to find out. Although, occasionally drags on about the birth of this event. this book has solid content and gives information that you would have never known otherwise. I recommend this book to any golf enthusist.
Easily the best book ever on The Masters June 14, 2000
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 an excellent look at America's most prestigious tournament, and the personalities that have made it what it is. Highly recommended.
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