• The Masters

  • Golf, Money, and Power in Augusta, Georgia
  • By: Curt Sampson
  • Narrated by: Barrett Whitener
  • Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (233 ratings)

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The Masters  By  cover art

The Masters

By: Curt Sampson
Narrated by: Barrett Whitener
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Publisher's summary

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 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. 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.
©1998 and 1999 Curt Sampson (P)2003 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Jack Nicklaus may own six green jackets, but no one has captured the Masters like [Curt] Sampson." (The Baton Rouge Advocate)
"[Curt Sampson's] fine new book, The Masters, is the only way we mortals are ever going to gain entrie to the hallowed Augusta National Golf Club." (The Dallas Morning News)

What listeners say about The Masters

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Okay Listen, but

I wonder how well researched he really is and how much homework this author really did when he can't even get the simplest things correct. For instance, he mentions or refers to Atlanta being in Cobb County numerous times, when it wouldn't have taken him two seconds to verify that Atlanta is in Fulton County, and always as has been. It's close to Cobb County, one county over. My point is this, how many other things was he CLOSE, but not CORRECT on. He really doesn't paint Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts in the best of light. Truth, or just something close?

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great for any fan of the Masters

Really gives some good insight to golf's most popular tournament. Narrator is good but occasionally gets names wrong. Still, well worth a listen.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

interesting but slow and a little boring

Would you try another book from Curt Sampson and/or Barrett Whitener?

Not sure, this was a little dull to be honest

Would you ever listen to anything by Curt Sampson again?

Maybe

Would you be willing to try another one of Barrett Whitener’s performances?

Not my first choice

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

fascinating story but could have been a little bit more cool inside stuff exposed

Any additional comments?

Don't listen at night you'll fall asleep to the tone in his voice

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

bad quality

Only half way through but it sounds like it was recorded in a phone booth over the phone. Very poor quality.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Classic biographical style

Similar to Boswell’s Life of Johnson, considered by scholars to be the best biography. Boswell quotes Plutarch as source of style:

“As is explained in the opening paragraph of his Life of Alexander, Plutarch was not concerned with history so much as the influence of character, good or bad, on the lives and destinies of men. Whereas sometimes he barely touched on epoch-making events, he devoted much space to charming anecdote and incidental triviality, reasoning that this often said far more for his subjects than even their most famous accomplishments.”

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Should have been titled different

The book was interesting and informative, but titled “the masters”, a bit misleading. It was really the biographical accounts of Augusta national with some masters info thrown in.

Still worth reading and listening too though, it gave me a whole new outlook on what this tournament and club is all about

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great book, Superb Reading

It’s more about the founders and the politics than the tournament, but it gets sufficient cover. The reader did an outstanding job.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Inside the Masters and Augusta National

A well researched and compelling story of ANGC and The Masters. A must read for anyone interested in golf history .

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great blend of story, facts, great narration.

The history of golf like only Sampson can create. Whitener does Sampson justice by speaking in just the right way that takes you to the scene that the author intends.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Pretty good for a golf fan.

I am a huge Masters fan and I love the history behind the tournament. Probably not worthy of a 10 hour listen though. Even I got a little bored with the stories

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