Customer Reviews

The Augusta National Golf Club: Alister MacKenzie's Masterpiece

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This is the most unique book ever done on the Augusta National. The Author, Stan Byrdy, is a local historian and broadcaster, and an Augusta insider! This is an oversized, coffee table, book. It provides amazing historical information and Masters stories, but the best thing about it is the vintage photographs of each of The National's original holes. The book also has yardage-book-style drawings of each original hole (circa 1934), and the modern-day hole -- so you can make side-by-side comaprisons of how each hole has changed over time. The complete architectural history of each hole is also provided!

This is a very important book for the golf fan, and a must-have for everyone interested in the Masters, or the Augusta National Golf Club, Bobby Jones, and Alister MacKenzie.

I purchased this book and subsequently returned it. For all of its promise regarding documentation of changes to the course and side-by-side drawings comparing the original holes to the present-day versions, it was a supreme disappointment. I am very knowledgeable on the subject of The Masters and the Augusta National Golf Club, and nothing in this book can't be found in the other four or five exceptional books on the history of the tournament and the golf course. What's more, the diagrams of the holes are not in proportion (i.e., the drawing of the 1934 version of a hole is not drawn in the same scale as the drawing of the present version of the same hole); for a course which has been lengthened by hundreds of yards over 70 years, it would be nice to be able to compare such yardage changes in the side-by-side drawings. As presented, however, each individual drawing is shrunken or enlarged to fit the dimensions of the page, and scale is not considered. The drawings are also clumsily drawn and lettered by hand, which is not aesthetically pleasing in the least and is exceedingly amateurish; given the wide range of easily accessible graphic design software now available, this is inexcusable. I cannot recommend this book. Instead, a purchaser is much better off buying the books by Frank Christian, David Owen, David Sowell, or Charles Price.

This book was an excellent choice for serious golfers. People who love the game of golf love the Augusta National Golf Course and the Masters. The pictures of the holes and of the course make you feel like you are there. You can feel its beauty. It is a geat book to give as a gift.

I actually got to walk out on this course. The Augusta National Golf Club grounds crew (a relative of mine worked there) get to play the course one day a year, on "Play Day" in May. I was the lucky guest of my relative.

No picture book or video can do this course justice. You actually have to be there to see how big and "wavy" some of the hills and greens are. Anyway, this book has a lot of good photos, like the one with Bobby Jones and company standing near what today is the 12th hole. I also like the original hole illustrations set next to illustrations of what the holes look like today.

This is a great book to add to your Masters Collection.