The Masters

Golf, Money, and Power in Augusta, Georgia

By: Curt Sampson

Narrated by: Barrett Whitener

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)

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.

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 .

Author needs fact checker

The author states several times that Atlanta GA is in Cobb County GA. Small detail but an easy fact to correct. Hopefully more important facts in the history of Augusta National were checked and double checked. Enjoyed the book and learning about the rich history- good and bad of the Master's.

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.

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.”

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?

Makes me want to go even more

Curt Sampson is an I credible author.

I loved how he brought the history of this magnificent place to life. He tells of things I would've never even thought belonged to the Masters. Anyone who loves golf needs to read this book.

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

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.