The Story of the Masters is the first comprehensive year-by-year history of the world's most famous golf tournament. Veteran golf journalist David Barrett draws upon contemporaneous reporting and other source material to offer dramatic accounts of each year the tournament has been played, starting in 1934. The story of the tournament progresses from the early years when it was founded by golf great Bobby Jones and quickly established itself as an elite event, to the post-World War II era when Sam Snead and Ben Hogan dominated. The thrilling exploits of dashing hero Arnold Palmer brought the tournament into the television age and the sustained excellence of Jack Nicklaus helped to further the prestige of the tournament. Nearly two full decades of European dominance of the Masters heralded the international age of golf. Then Tiger Woods came along and used the Augusta stage for his coming-out party in 1997 and then for his epic comeback in 2019. In Barrett's telling, each year has its own story to tell as the Augusta National course provides the perfect setting for tournament excitement, noted for suspenseful back-and-forth action between multiple contenders --the norm at the Masters. The nature of the course's layout creates opportunities for stirring charges and heroic shots to determine the champion, while filled with enough danger to provoke monumental collapses that also become part of Masters lore. Through the decades, the game's greatest players have shined their brightest at the Masters. Many golfing careers have been shaped and defined by this tournament, and Barrett shares unknown and forgotten stories of not only the sport's stars, but also the many others who challenged them over the years at Augusta.
Industry Reviews
"With Miracle at Merion , David Barrett has brilliantly dissected the sequence of events that transformed Hogan from the game's hardest-working underdog into it's most mythic and enduring star, providing a beautiful narrative framework for better understanding the game's transcendent power. If I was buying just one golf book this year, this would be it. A bravura reconstruction that should be in every golf reader's library." James Dodson, bestselling author of Ben Hogan: An American Life
"David Barrett is an able and thorough writer, and he has clinically and thoughtfully broken down the Masters in tournament form. This is a distinctively different look at the history of the tournament." Ben Crenshaw, Professional golfer, golf historian, two-time winner of the Masters tournament
"David Barrett's work is always backed by thorough research, sharp intelligence, and a keen perspective. All of that comes to bear in this engaging treasure of a book." George Peper, Editor, Links Magazine
"God is in the details, and so is great golf writing. David Barrett's astute choices gives us the most comprehensive and satisfying retrospective ever written about the Masters." Jamie Diaz, Anchor, Golf Channel
"We've never seen a telling of the Masters tournament remotely like this one--comprehensive and colorful." Guy Yocom, Writer, Golf Digest
"David Barrett has given sports history buffs and fans of golf's most celebrated invitational a wonderful gift, smoothly conveyed by a master storyteller. An invaluable addition to your golf library." James Dodson, Author of Ben Hogan: An American Life
"David Barrett writes authoritatively about one of America's intriguing and enduring sporting events, detailing the pivotal shots and the golfers who hit them." Bill Fields, 2020 recipient of the PGA Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism
"In The Story of the Masters, David Barrett has done what the tournament itself does so well--created something special. More than tell the story of each Masters played, Barrett brings the people and the moments alive." Ron Green, Global Golf Post
