• Making the Masters

  • Bobby Jones and the Birth of America's Greatest Golf Tournament
  • By: David Barrett
  • Narrated by: Jerry Whiddon
  • Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (61 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Making the Masters  By  cover art

Making the Masters

By: David Barrett
Narrated by: Jerry Whiddon
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $19.95

Buy for $19.95

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Editorial reviews

To golf fans, if it's the second week of April, it's time for the Masters, the most prestigious golf tournament in the world. As David Barrett demonstrates in his astonishing history, Making the Masters: Bobby Jones and the Birth of America's Greatest Golf Tournament it wasn't always that way. Barrett shows how this most venerated of sporting events sprung from the mind of golfer Bobby Jones and grew to the event it is today through hard work, luck, and a friendship between the visionary Jones and brass-tacks banker Clifford Roberts. Narrator Jerry Whiddon brings a steady voice to this dramatic tale, set against the backdrop of America's hardest economic season, as the audiobook builds to its climax in the spectacular contest of the 1935 Masters.

Publisher's summary

The fascinating true story of the origins of fabled Augusta National Golf Club and the creation of America’s most prestigious golf tournament, the Masters.Contested the second weekend in April each year since 1934, the Masters is the world’s most prestigious golf tournament and most-watched tournament on television. Tickets are in such demand that even the waiting list is closed, and players value the title above all others. In Making the Masters, award-winning golf writer David Barrett focuses his attention on how the Masters was conceived, how it got off the ground in 1934, and how it fully established itself in 1935.The key figure in the tournament’s creation and success was Bobby Jones, who was a living legend after winning the Grand Slam in 1930 and immediately retiring at the age of twenty-eight. He went on to found Augusta National and sought a high-profile tournament for his new course. But nearly as important was Clifford Roberts, a banker friend of Jones who not only embraced Jones’s vision but became his right-hand man in working to bring that vision to reality.Barrett explores how Jones and Roberts built the Masters from scratch, creating a golf institution embellished by the often surprising details of what that entailed as they were trying to establish a golf club and golf tournament in tough economic times. It also vividly chronicles the events of the 1934 and 1935 Masters, with Gene Sarazen’s spectacular victory in 1935 providing the climax. Set against the backdrop of golf, and America, in the 1930s, the book provides an informative and entertaining read for fans of the Masters and students of golf history.

©2012 David Barrett (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

More from the same

What listeners say about Making the Masters

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    20
  • 4 Stars
    29
  • 3 Stars
    8
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    2
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    22
  • 4 Stars
    19
  • 3 Stars
    8
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    19
  • 4 Stars
    27
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Thanks David! Learned much Phenomenal research.

Seems the weather sure got better in Augusta then it was in the 1930s!
I could have seen Bob Jones in the White House if that job hadn't already been filled by his friend DDE.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Hard to visualize

While entertaining in many ways, the level of detail, and even for a golfer, is hard to Visualize in the audio book version.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

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

Sometimes a little too much data

Narrator occasionally stumbles. the content sometimes rattles off names and numbers perhaps unnecessarily and deviates into side stories spontaneously but a good story nonetheless.

Great voice.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

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

Great story of the course & The Masters' early yrs

Good, not great. Very good early years history. The narration is well done. Anyone wanting to learn more about the early start of the course and the tournament should enjoy it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

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

great!

great info about Augusta National. there is much of the history many people do not know.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

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

Interesting Read

Fairly interesting book. Some detail but not a real deep dive. I thought the reader did a good job. If you are a golf fan it’s worth the time.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!