Rating: 
Summary: The Fat Rich Guys At Augusta Can Buy Anything
Review: 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 Burk. David Owen is a journeyman writer who hacks a column for one of the golf magazines. He was paid by Augusta National to write a rebuttal to Sampson's book. A big deal was made of the fact that Owen was given "exclusive access" to club archives.
All is sweetness, light and goodness among the azaleas and loblolly pines, heaven knows. Owen even goes so far as to negatively mention Sampson's work by name (tacky). If you don't smell the odor of rotten eggs by now, you probably think Hootie Johnson is an intellectual and a feminist at heart. (Hootie, if you had just thrown the letter away, you could have avoided this whole mess! That was flat-out dumb.) However, maybe Mr. Owen will get to write another book with exclusive access to Augusta's archives, regarding their valiant efforts to find a female member. Remember your integrity, David - that means once you're bought, you stay bought. Advice: unless you're a member at Augusta National, don't waste your time and money on this drivel.
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing.
Review: As someone who doesn't play golf, and who habitually changes the channel when golf tournaments are on, and for whom the wearing golf clothes could substitute for a sentence of hard labor, should I be convicted of a felony -- let me say that David Owen has done the impossible: He made golf interesting. And not just golf, but Clifford Roberts, the Augusta National -- I've completely revised my opinions on the entire idea of golf, which I see now is far more than just a pastime. Now that I've read this book, I've taken three golf lessons. This book makes the perfect gift for any woman (or man) who thinks they're stuck in a relationship with a golfer! Their tune will change, let me tell you, and for the better.
Rating:
Summary: Even non-golfers will love it.
Review: David Owen has done it again! He manages to make a subject in which many people have no interest (and a few have a grotesquely excessive one)seem fascinating to the general reader. His previous book on home improvement (The Walls Around Us) did much the same thing. The topic invariably reminds one of the dullest person one has ever been forced to talk to at a cocktail party but, in Owen's expert hands, it takes on an unexpected bottomless richness. All hail David Owen!
Rating:
Summary: Owen makes anything interesting.
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: "A Hole in One!"
Review: David Owens has done it again. He takes fun topics, and with careful research and a wonderful writing style, entertains you.No one interested in golf, Augusta, or The Masters should miss this book. It's better than any other book on this much covered subject.
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Summary: Brilliant & Entertaining Fix for Sophisticated Golf Junkies!
Review: David Owens has scored again! For anyone who is not familiar with his books, he has an uncanny ability to take a popular subject, and through careful research and brilliant writing, make it engaging and fun. His newest book on Augusta, The Masters, and its founder is no exception. Unlike other golf related books, which tend to be more shallow and aimed at the purely popular crowd, this one actually holds its own against any painstakingly researched history. And the outcome of this never before granted access to Augusta are a series of revelations. Almost unthinkable today, the Club and the Tournament, almost went belly up. It was not only the legendary, well known Bobby Jones who put Augusta on the map. It was probably more the intensely private and very unusual Cliff Roberts who conceived the Club and fanatically nurtured it. Every controversy and major event surrounding the Club and this uniquely American event is surfaced, and treated comprehensively and fairly. No issue is ducked; nothing is sugar coated. On top of great content, the writing is magical. In this day and electronic age, it is a pleasure to read someone who has such a command of the English language that he can make it stand up and bark. Anyone who appreciates great writing and is even remotely interested in golf or America, for that matter, should buy this book. I know they will like it!
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Book
Review: Engaging...touching in places...couldn't put it down...You'd have to be an awfully picky reader to find fault with this book. Appears to clear up a lot of previously published falsehoods and misrepresentations. Pictures are a bonus. If you're a stickler for details and want to read the facts as never presented before....buy it...you won't be sorry!
Rating: 
Summary: Weird
Review: 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?
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book aided by original source documents
Review: Over the years many untrue articles have appeared concerning Augusta National Golf Club and The Masters. This was probably due to the very private nature of the club which I'm sure rubs some people the wrong way. So to get back at this secret rich man's club, some journalists made up stories and repeated them for years. Now that the archives have finally been opened we are better able to judge the facts. Mr. Owen clears up many of these past inaccuracies in the last third of the book. He also shows us just how "touch and go" the whole enterprise was in the early years. The photographs and maps are worth the price alone and the history of the club is interesting to read. If you have ever been to Augusta you understand what the word "perfection" really means. This book is similar to Curt Sampson's "Hogan" in that it finally dispels much of the nonsense that has been written about these two remarkable gentlemen.
Rating: 
Summary: The Making of the Making of the Masters
Review: Researching and writing this book was just about the most fun I've ever had. Augusta National's archivist and I discovered a huge amount of previously lost or unknown material - old letters, diaries, maps, deeds, Masters souvenirs, photographs, and other items, many of which helped to fill in gaps in the history of the club and the tournament. The Making of the Masters includes 32 pages of color and black-and-white pictures, a number of which have never been seen outside the club. My favorites: a unique color photograph of Bobby Jones practicing at the 1947 Masters, printed from a batch of long forgotten negatives that turned up in a file cabinet; a color photograph of Gene Sarazen and a movie cameraman printed from the same batch of negatives; a 1932 color map of the club's property which shows an early plan for a housing subdivision alongside some of the holes; a 1932 aerial photograph of the just-completed course, on which the grass had not yet fully grown in; seventeen early photographs of individual holes taken after the first Masters and not published since 1935; and an index-card-sized application from the club's disastrous membership drive of 1931, when Augusta National's initiation fee was $350 and dues were $60 a year - yet virtually no one signed up
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