A wonderful trip down Masters memory lane, 19 April 2001

Written by the redoubtable former editor of Golf Digest, Cal Brown, who teamed up with Frank Christian, the official photographer of the Augusta National Golf Club for the seminal photojournalistic offering Augusta National & The Masters' book, 'Masters Memories' gives the inside story on the whole shebang. Where Christian's pictures tells the story through some stunning and unusual images so Brown gives you the full flavour of the Club, the tournament and the players who have been at the centre of proceedings in his wonderfully crafted word pictures.

He recounts the stories of the great and the good who have themselves become the history of the place. Gene Sarazen and his mythical albatross, Dave Marr and his missing badge, Roberto Di Vicenzo's erroneous scorecard, Ike Eisenhower and his favourite caddy, 'Cemetery', Freddie Couples' 'miracle at Rae's Creek'. Ben Crenshaw's incredible emotion fuelled win in 95 and of course the ever evolving legend of 'the meanest little hole in golf', the 12th. A chapter Tom Weiskopf and his fans may wish to skip!

Of course, no book about the Masters would be complete without some reference to young Eldrick T Woods. And, in the book's penultimate chapter entitled 'Tiger's Ascendance', Brown focuses on the man who could yet emulate and even overtake Jack Nicklaus and his seemingly insurmountable collection Green Jackets he tells of how Woods swept all before him in 97 and of what the future might hold for Tiger and the Masters.

"Augusta National certainly favours the game Tiger plays. Anyone with a passing acquaintance of the place would be astonished if he didn't win more Masters tournaments, although the ten that Nicklaus suggested will not be so easy."

A prediction only future instalments of Masters Memories will be able to tell us. I await them eagerly.

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