'The Story of the Masters'
Charting the thrills and spills at Augusta since 1934
The 'Story of the Masters' fills what had been a gap in golf literature.
While many books were written about the famed tournament, few provided a year-by-year account of the dramas and storylines that have unfolded in Augusta since 1934.
I was well positioned to illuminate those events, having been a sportswriter at the Augusta Chronicle in the early 1980s, and then for two decades at Golf magazine.
For much of the tournament’s history, the Chronicle covered the Masters more thoroughly than any other newspaper, and probably more copiously than any daily has ever covered a sporting event.
8-10 pages were devoted every day to the field, with each writer producing several articles. (Sadly, coverage has dropped off in recent years due to the paper’s cutbacks).
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The book charts the competition from its beginnings through 2021, digging into each year and unveiling interesting tidbits that otherwise would have been lost to history.
A new hardcover edition that will bring it up to 2025 is expected to be released by early next year.
Indeed, ‘The Story of the Masters’ is a collection of noteworthy and exciting anecdotes with special years like 1975, 1986, and 2019 receiving additional in-depth attention.
It starts with The Early Years (1934-42), and continues with Snead, Hogan, and Post-War Growth (1946-57), Arnie and Jack (1958-66), The Darkhorse Era (1967-73), Return of the Elite (1974-82), The European Age (1983-96), Tiger’s Time (1997-2005), A Couple of Lefties and a New Course (2006-14), and Precocious Youth, a Comeback, and a November Masters (2015-20).
The Augusta National course is also explored. The Alistair MacKenzie/Bobby Jones design, tweaked through the decades, has formed the perfect stage for the game’s greatest titans - no lead is ever safe as the everchanging leaderboard tests players’ nerves and keeps fans in suspense.
The highlight of The Early Years chapter is Gene Sarazen’s double eagle on the 15th hole that wiped out a three-stroke deficit with one magnificent shot, eventually landing him in a playoff which he would win.
At that time, scoring reports from the course were sent to where the press was gathered just outside the clubhouse. When the voice on the radio reported that Sarazen had made a 2 on the 15th (par 5), he was asked to repeat it because it sounded like a mistake.
From 1949 to 1954, Ben Hogan and Sam Snead accounted for five of the six titles. They went head-to-head in 1954 when it came down to an 18-hole playoff between them.
It was a closely fought battle with neither leading by more than one stroke until the 16th where Hogan three-putted for a bogey, missing a three-foot second putt; putting was a shaky part of his game by that point of his career.
The two rivals, both age 41, entered the playoff each with two Masters wins, so Snead’s victory made him a three-time champion while Hogan had to settle for two.
It doesn’t happen very often that a player birdies the last two holes to win by one, but that’s what happened in back-to-back years in 1959 and 1960.
Art Wall did it in 1959 to beat Cary Middlecoff and more famously, Arnold Palmer birdied 17 and 18 in 1960 to edge out Ken Venturi.
It was yet another heartbreak for Venturi, who blew a four-stroke lead with a final-round 80 as an amateur in 1956 and bogeyed three holes down the stretch in 1958 as he finished two strokes back while Palmer claimed his first green jacket.
This time, Venturi finished well enough with a 70 and sat in the clubhouse with the lead.
“I haven’t won it yet,” he told reporters, and he was right. Palmer grabbed his second title in heroic fashion with birdies from 25 and 6 feet on the last two holes. He would go on to win two more.
Relatively unheralded players had their winning moments in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The most notable of these events came in 1968 when Bob Goalby was the winner of a tournament more remembered for Roberto De Vicenzo’s scorecard gaffe.
The two would have dueled in a playoff, but De Vicenzo signed a scorecard that marker Tommy Aaron had recorded with a 4 on the 17th hole instead of the 3 that De Vicenzo actually made.
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What should have been a 65 for the Argentinian became a 66. Goalby shot a 66 himself on a day that featured birdies galore before being decided in unsatisfying fashion.
The stars returned to the forefront in ensuing years, including Gary Player winning in 1974 and 1978 to run his win total to three and Tom Watson taking the title in 1977 and 1982 during a time when he took over as the No. 1 player in the game.
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The signature event of this era came in 1975 when Jack Nicklaus outlasted Johnny Miller and Tom Weiskopf in a thrilling matchup of the three top players at the time.
Nicklaus holed a long birdie putt at the 16th and came away with the title when Miller and Weiskopf both missed birdie attempts on the closing hole. It was the fifth Masters victory for Nicklaus.
The Golden Bear added a sixth in 1986 with a back-nine 30 in one of the most thrilling tournaments on record. Overall, though, the 1983-96 period would belong to a strong group of Europeans.
Players from Europe won a remarkable nine of 14 Masters in this stretch, with Seve Ballesteros providing a precursor with a 1980 victory and Jose Maria Olazabal a postscript with a 1999 title.
While Spain’s Ballesteros was the spark with a 1983 victory, England’s Nick Faldo prevailed with consecutive playoff wins in 1989-90 and a 1996 victory that was equal parts Faldo charge (67) and Greg Norman collapse (78).
It was Faldo who paired with Tiger Woods, the reigning amateur champion, in the first round in 1997—and thus witnessed first-hand the birth of the Woods era.
The newly turned pro followed a front-nine 40 with a back-nine 30 in the first day, fired 66 in the second, dusted Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie by nine strokes to win the third (65), and then buried another European, Costantino Rocca, by a margin of 6 in the fourth (69).
“All I have to say is one comment,” said the shell-shocked Scotsman. “There is no chance [for anyone but Woods to win].”
Indeed, Woods posted a record 12-stroke victory margin in the final round, marking the first of his four titles in a nine-year span.
The next Masters phase saw a couple of left-handed golfers display their talents with memorable swings.
In 2006, Phil Mickelson punctuated the second of his three victories with a 6-iron second shot through a narrow gap in the trees to four feet on the 13th hole of the final round.
Another lefty, Bubba Watson, pulled one off with an even higher degree of difficulty on the deciding hole of a playoff in 2012, powering an intentional hook around the trees with a wedge to escape jail and make a winning par as he claimed the first of two titles.
Jordan Spieth made a strong bid to become the youngest ever Masters champion at the age of 20 before finishing tied for second in 2015. The precocious young pro followed up with a victory in 2016 at 21—a few months older than Woods when he claimed his first trophy in 1997.
In 2019, Woods himself re-emerged at athe age of 43 as a fifth-time podium king, adding to the lore and rich legacy of the Masters.
David Barrett is a long-time golf journalist and author. He has written 8 books, winning the USGA Herbert Warren Wind Award as best golf book of 2010 for Ben Hogan’s inspiring victory at the 1950 U.S. Open, ‘Miracle at Merion’.
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