From Booklist
Here is the perfect antidote for golf fans sick of the controversy over female membership at Augusta National Golf Club. There have been numerous histories of the Masters Tournament, of course, but Sowell takes a fresh approach. Rather than following the tournament chronologically, from 1934 to the present, he offers capsule histories of each hole on the Augusta course, noting facts about its construction and redesign over the years and then reporting on how the various holes have affected the outcome of the tournament through history. Even casual fans will remember the big moments associated with the most famous holes (e.g., Sarazen’s double eagle on the fifteenth in 1935, the “shot heard round the world”), bu [Read More...]
Buy The Masters: A Hole-by-Hole History of America’s Golf Classic, Second Edition at Amazon
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April 3rd, 2010 at 5:08 pm
I gave this book to my husband for Christmas. He is really enjoying it. He is a player and a big fan of the game. We had the opportunity to attend a practice round at the Masters a couple of years ago, he is reliving seeing those holes one by one.
April 3rd, 2010 at 6:45 pm
For those who have been following the Masters for years, this may not hold your interest as much as someone who watched the competition once and is longing for more.
The book is set up simply: each hole is presented, with its special characteristics, a summary of the changes that have been made to it over the years, and the more famous plays surrounding each. If you’ve never heard of Sarazen’s shot heard around the world, or Arnie’s Army, this is something to read before April comes again.
Although readable in almost any order, the evolution of Augusta and the personalities that have made their way down its fairways are lain out more or less in the order of the chapters (holes). If you are looking for a particular favorite person (Claud Harmon, for example), incidentĀ@(Patton’s charge), or course feature (the Eisenhower Pine), it can be found through the index.
The author, David Sowell, lacks some of the narrative flare that would allow a person to read the book cover to cover in a night, but a hole a night is probably a good enough pace.
Where this is probably not a book to keep on hand indefinately, it is a great introduction to the youngest of the four majors. Hopefully, given recent victories and changes at Augusta, a revised version will be forthcoming. It is hoped that more photographs from Augusta will be included to help illustrate many of the greatest moments in golf history.