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The Making of the Masters: Clifford Roberts, Augusta National, and Golf's Most Prestigious Tournament
 
 
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The Making of the Masters: Clifford Roberts, Augusta National, and Golf's Most Prestigious Tournament [Hardcover]

David Owen (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Analyzing the legend and lore of golf's most celebrated tournament has become something of a cottage industry of late, but Owen, who displayed his personal golfing affections, frustrations, and obsessions so marvelously in My Usual Game, now goes where his competition hasn't gained access: to the source--via access to Augusta National's archives, records, and membership. The result is a sympathetic, yet still critical and complex portrait of the club and its founder, Clifford Roberts, to whom golf history has not been particularly kind. Indeed, for better--and for worse--Roberts and Augusta remain linked throughout what is essentially a volume that weaves biography with social history played against a sporting canvas. Naturally, finance, ego, Bobby Jones, television, and President Eisenhower figure into the tale, but Eisenhower's not the only leader of the free world to use the club's exclusivity to his benefit; Owen uncovers the delicious bit that Ronald Reagan and George Schultz helped finalize the invasion of Grenada there.

Of course, there is also some great golf. Augusta National would be just another golf club with a fancy pedigree and history of exclusion were it not for the remarkable tournament that it hosts every year. Owen, a graceful writer, tees up plenty of detail and anecdote in a hole-by-hole tour of the track, lined with perspective. Owen explains,

If the Masters seems older than it is, that's largely because the tournament, alone among the majors, is conducted year after year on the same course. Every important shot is played against a backdrop that consists of every other important shot, all the way back to 1934. Every key drive, approach, chip, and putt is footnoted and cross-referenced across decades of championship play. Every swing--good or bad--has a context.
The context that Owen provides makes The Making of the Masters as indispensable as a hot putter. --Jeff Silverman

From Publishers Weekly

Revered today as the most prestigious and tradition-rich tournament in American golf, the Masters, like the Augusta National Golf Club at which it is played, sprang from humble beginnings. As every ardent golf fan knows, Augusta National was the brainchild of legendary golfer Bobby Jones Jr., who teamed with stockbroker Cliff Roberts to build what is considered to be the cathedral of American golf courses on the site of a former flower nursery in Georgia. What is less well known is that financial problems nearly prevented the course from ever being built, and that Roberts conceived of the Masters as a way to promote the club, which was having trouble attracting members during the Depression. In describing the growth of the tournament, New Yorker staff writer Owen (My Usual Game) centers his story on Roberts, the hard-driving "benevolent dictator" who served as chairman of both the Masters and Augusta National from their inception until he committed suicide in 1971 at age 77. Owen portrays the often controversial Roberts in the most favorable light possible. In particular, he defends the Masters' (and by extension Roberts's) record of not having the first black golfer participate in the tournament until Lee Elder broke the barrier in 1975. Indeed, Owen treats everything connected with Roberts and the Masters in reverential terms, dismissing critics as ill informed. Despite this shortcoming, Owen has unearthed enough details and colorful anecdotes about the tournament and its playersAboth on the course and behind the scenesAto make this nearly irresistible reading for devoted golfers and weekend duffers. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1ST edition (April 5, 1999)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0684857294
  • ISBN-13: 978-0684857299
  • Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #895,198 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
    #75 in  Books > Sports > Miscellaneous > Sports Events

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David Owen
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Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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First Sentence:
THE MODERN GOLF season never ends, but it does begin. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
book about the club, dub members, twelfth green, golf dub, fifteenth green, tenth green, black golfers, twelfth hole, golf fans, new tournament, golf shop, fairway bunker, eighteenth green, hole today, sixteenth hole, competitive golf, putting surface, dose friend, first tournament, new clubhouse
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Augusta National, New York, Bobby Jones, United States, Beau Jack, Bon Air, Byron Nelson, Masters Tournament, Clifford Roberts, Ben Hogan, Old Course, Rae's Creek, Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer, Magnolia Lane, Olmsted Bros, Herbert Warren Wind, Wall Street, Gene Sarazen, British Open, North Carolina, Second World War, Amen Corner, Canadian Open, Charles Yates
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The Making of the Masters: Clifford Roberts, Augusta National, and Golf's Most Prestigious Tournament
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Customer Reviews

19 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (19 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Weird, April 2, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: The Making of the Masters: Clifford Roberts, Augusta National, and Golf's Most Prestigious Tournament (Hardcover)
It's as if the author was handed a list by the Augusta members of all the things they wanted clarified or addressed regarding Clifford Roberts, and the author was charged with clarifying the supposed misconceptions regarding this odd character. If you are looking for any sign that Bobby Jones was involved in the creation of the club and Masters, forget it. It's as if Jones was just lending his name to the place, like players do today as architects, and Roberts was everything about the club, in every way, shape or form. At least the pictures of the course are interesting and perhaps make it worthwhile to buy, but barely. The text is just a case laid out for making Cliff Roberts a saint. Who cares about that?
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Fairly Good-is the "Yin" to Sampson's "Yang", July 10, 2006
By S. Conner (Burke, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Making of the Masters: Clifford Roberts, Augusta National, and Golf's Most Prestigious Tournament (Paperback)
Picked this up by chance at the library...and realized I was reading the book that is the Yin to the Yang of the Curt Sampson book The Masters : Golf, Money, and Power in Augusta, Georgia.

Both books look at the same event. Owens focuses only on the beauty spots, while Sampson goes out of his way to find the warts. Owens keeps his story within the walls of the country club, while Sampson traces the development of the golf course and the town and how each impacts the other.

I can't help but feel that Owens book was written as a rebuttal to Sampson's book...and even there it seems to be a surgical strike method rather than a massive refutation type of rebuttal. Example: Sampson quotes specific sums of money in regard to Roberts worth, but is seemingly talking about the sums after factoring inflation...Owens takes these same numbers, uses what appears to be the original number without considering inflation, and then says Sampsons numbers are wrong. Example: Frank Stranahan finishes #2 in the Masters, then is banned the next year for taking multiple practice shots from the same spot (despite warnings). Owens focuses on the action, and says Cliff Roberts action in punishing Stranahan was appropriate. Sampson takes the issue and focuses on the fact that other people did the same thing, but were never punished. Example: Owens examines Roberts marvelous relations with Jones, Eisenhower, and the like, and asks how could a person that had the trust of such great men be the curmudgeon that Sampson and others have made him out to be? Sampson notes how Roberts treated people over whom he had power very poorly but worked hard to get into the good graces of people who could advance his goals.

These two books are as the results of two different men writing about the same pattern in a Rohrschach (sp?) test-they see the same facts and come up with different answers.

So if you want a balanced view of the Masters, don't read either this book or Sampson's book-READ THEM BOTH, then come to your own conclusion.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars book, June 7, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: The Making of the Masters: Clifford Roberts, Augusta National, and Golf's Most Prestigious Tournament (Hardcover)
This was a great book. I read it in record time for me, just under a week. The pictures are great. I thouroughly enjoyed it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Story About the World's Most Outstanding Golf Tournament.
There is an aura about Augusta National and about the Masters. This book comes as close as words can come to capturing that aura and communicating it to the reader. Read more
Published on March 15, 2006 by Big D

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read
This book is a must read for Masters' fans. The history of the area as well as to golf club itself adds to the enjoyment. Read more
Published on July 6, 2004 by DMK

1.0 out of 5 stars The Fat Rich Guys At Augusta Can Buy Anything
Apparently, when Curt Sampson, a highly-regarded and critically acclaimed author, penned his book about The Masters, it ticked off the members there even more so than did Martha... Read more
Published on May 5, 2003 by Brian McClafferty

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstaning .....I could not put it down
This is not a book about golf. It is the outstanding history of a national treasure it's people and how it almost went bankrupt, and was saved by the dedication and love of... Read more
Published on February 16, 2002 by Brian M McMillan

5.0 out of 5 stars Well- researched and a pleasure to read
This tells you all you need to know about the history of the club and the tournament. It is well-researched and easy to read. I recommend it highly.
Published on July 15, 2000 by Robert W. Deaton

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book aided by original source documents
Over the years many untrue articles have appeared concerning Augusta National Golf Club and The Masters. Read more
Published on July 3, 1999

2.0 out of 5 stars Are Cliff Roberts and David Owen related?
This is a wonderfully researched book and well written as you'd expect from Mr. Owen, and I enjoyed reading it. Read more
Published on May 7, 1999

3.0 out of 5 stars Exhaustive research ruined by an agenda
The book was quite interesting and the author apparently researched it very thoroughly. Time after time, Owen refutes (quite convincingly) a number of well-known stories about... Read more
Published on April 29, 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterpiece
The Making of the Masters cleans out a whole library of rumor and legendary rubbish that has been written about Roberts, the club and the tournament. Read more
Published on April 26, 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars Owen makes anything interesting.
David Owen is such a good writer that he actually got me thinking I'm interested in golf. And, for all I know, I am! Thanks, Mr. Owen.
Published on April 19, 1999

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