{"product_id":"the-making-of-the-masters-clifford-roberts-augusta-national-and-golfs-most-prestigious-tournament","title":"The Making of the Masters: Clifford Roberts  Augusta National  and Golf's Most Prestigious Tournament","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"If you asked golfers what tournament they would rather win over all the others \" golfing great Sam Snead once said  \"I think every one of them to a man would say the Masters.\" Played on the magnificent course designed by Bob Jones and Alister MacKenzie for the Augusta National Golf Club  the Masters has become the dividing line between winter and spring for even the casual golf fan -- and the hallmark of greatness for the pros who walk its fairways. Unlike the three other major tournaments that define the golf season  the Masters is not run by a national governing body  either of the game or of its professionals. It is run by a private club  which sets the requirements for qualification. The prize is not a championship title but the clubs green blazer. So how is it that this private gathering has become the most glamorous  most watched  and most imitated golf tournament in the world? The usual answers to this question are: the prestige brought to the tournament from its beginnings by the presence of Bobby Jones  still listed on the Clubs masthead as President in Perpetuity nearly three decades after his death; the beauty of the golf course  with its dogwoods and azaleas in dazzling April bloom; and the drama that develops on the back nine every annual Sunday  as the magnificent risk-reward aspects of the course permit great things to be achieved by great players. But the hidden and greatly misunderstood figure in the history of the Masters and Augusta National is Clifford Roberts  the clubs chairman from its founding in 1931 until shortly before his suicide in 1977. Robertss meticulous attention to detail  his firm authoritarian hand  and his skill at constantly imagining improvements where others already saw perfection helped build the Masters into the tournament it is today  and Augusta National into every golfers view of how heaven should look. It was Roberts who saw the club through its troubled early years -- for  hard as it is to realize today  the survival of Augusta National was an open question until well after World War II. Robertss was the most powerful voice in all club matters; business meetings were generally brief  since only one opinion mattered  and the meetings themselves were often a pretense to draw in members for friendly if fiercely waged matches. His friendship with Jones is what brought the club into being; his bond with Dwight D. Eisenhower gave the club its greatest cachet. And his dealings with CBS  which has televised the tournament since 1956  guided the network into the modern era of sports broadcasting. To tell the story of the club  the Masters  and its idiosyncratic founder  acclaimed author David Owen was granted unprecedented access to the archives  records  and membership of Augusta National Golf Club. Owen found Roberts to be a character every bit as intriguing and vibrant as his more celebrated co-founder. And he uncovered a wealth of evidence debunking the popular perception that all that is best about Augusta National should be credited primarily to Jones. As it was written of Sir Christopher Wren  architect of Londons St. Pauls Cathedral  so it may be said of Clifford Roberts on Masters Sunday at the club he built and loved: If you seek his monument  look around you.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44945737089077,"sku":"ByrdShop_0684857294","price":65.37,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780684857299.jpg?v=1769907954","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-making-of-the-masters-clifford-roberts-augusta-national-and-golfs-most-prestigious-tournament","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}