The Masters

Golf, Money, and Power in Augusta, Georgia

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)

Typical of a writer's POV living in the northeast.

Half of the book appeared to be only about The Masters. The writer; knowingly or not, made it too much about race, and white southerners.

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 .

Asked and answered

This book answered a lot of questions I had about the Masters tournament and Augusta National very good book. Still have some questions but this answers a lot of things I always wanted to know.

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.

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.”