Brad Faxon - One Week in April: The Masters: Stories and Insights from Arnold Palmer, Phil Mickelson, Rick Reilly, Ken Venturi, Jack Nicklaus, Le

O NE W EEK I N A PRIL :
THE
M ASTERS

Stories and Insights from Arnold Palmer,
Phil Mickelson, Rick Reilly, Ken Venturi, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino,
and Many More About the Quest for the Famed Green Jacket

I NTRODUCTION BY
Brad Faxon, eight-time winner on the PGA TOUR

F OREWORD BY
Don Wade, former senior editor at Golf Digest

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Published by Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.
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2008 by Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.
First published in hardcover in 2008 as First Sunday in April: The Masters by
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by Don Wade

by Brad Faxon

from A Good Walk Spoiled: Days and Nights on the
PGA Tour by John Feinstein

from A Golfers Life by Arnold Palmer with James Dodson

from Fairways and Greens: The Best Golf Writing of Dan Jenkins
by Dan Jenkins

by Craig Dolch, Palm Beach Post, April 11, 2002

by Ron Agostini, The Modesto Bee, April 14, 1993

from the Introduction to The Masters: Golf, Money, and
Power in Augusta, Georgia by Curt Sampson

from Byron Nelson: An Autobiography by Byron Nelson

by Tom Callahan, Golf Digest, April 2003

by John Boyette, The Augusta Chronicle, April 4, 2004

from Jack Nicklaus: My Story by Jack Nicklaus with Ken Bowden

by Brad Townsend, The Dallas Morning News, April 3, 2000

by Craig Bestrom, Golf Digest, April 2005

from The Making of the Masters by David Owen

The Other Side: For Starters, Champion Must
Master Augustas Unheralded Front Nine

by Bill Nichols, The Dallas Morning News, April 14, 1996

by Herbert Warren Wind, Sports Illustrated, April 21, 1958

by Rick Reilly, Sports Illustrated, April 2, 1990

by Mark Stith, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, April 3, 1988

by David Westin, The Augusta Chronicle, April 5, 2001

by Ron Whitten, Golf Digest, April 2006

by John Eisenberg, The Baltimore Sun, April 12, 1996

by Ron Sirak, Golf Digest, April 2003

by Bob Harig, St. Petersburg Times, April 4, 2006

by Mike Fish, The Atlanta Constitution, April 7, 1997

by David Westin, The Augusta Chronicle, April 7, 1996

by Dave Anderson, The New York Times, April 10, 1983

from Whos Your Caddy? by Rick Reilly

from When War Played Through: Golf During World War II by John Strege

by Steve Campbell, Houston Chronicle, April 2, 2006

by Rick Reilly, Sports Illustrated, April 21, 1997

from The Majors by John Feinstein

from One Magical Sunday (But Winning Isnt Everything)
by Phil Mickelson with Donald T. Phillips

from Getting Up & Down: My 60 Years in Golf by Ken Venturi
with Michael Arkush

by Arthur Daley, The New York Times, April 16, 1968

from The Snake in the Sandtrap (and Other Misadventures
on the Golf Tour) by Lee Trevino and Sam Blair

by Susan Reimer, The Baltimore Sun, April 20, 2003

by Bill Simmons, ESPN.com, November 21, 2002

There is a truism which holds that the smaller the ball, the better the writing. That is made abundantly clear in this wonderful and engaging collection of pieces about one of the worlds premier sporting events, the Masters Golf Tournament.

What is also apparent is that the tournament and the press have enjoyed an affair of the heart that began in 1934 and continues to this day. There are any number of reasons for this.

First and foremost was Bobby Jones himself, the supreme champion of his time who, in the constellation of athletes that made the Golden Age of Sports possible in the 1920s and 30s, shone the brightest of them all. Joness record is well known. He won four U.S. Opens, five U.S. Amateurs, three British Opens, and the 1930 British Amateur. It was in that same year, 1930, that he won all four of these major championships of his era in one seasonthe historic Grand Slam. That done, he essentially retired from competitive golf at age 28.

The reasons for Joness popularity transcended his playing record. He was the embodiment of the amateur ideal at a time when that truly mattered. He was instinctively gracious and had a keen mind. He had an engineering degree from the Atlanta School of Technology (now Georgia Tech), a degree in literature from Harvard, and was a practicing attorney.

And, for the purposes of this book, he respected sportswriters and counted among his closest friends the columnist Grantland Rice (one of the early members at Augusta National and the honorary chairman of the first Augusta National Invitation tournament, as it was known in its first five years) and O.B. Keeler, his close friend who chronicled Joness career for the Atlanta Journal. Keeler, in effect, played Boswell to Joness Dr. Johnson, a relationship that proved profitable and advantageous for both men. In the cases of both Rice and Keeler, the close relationship between the two and the clublet alone Jones himselfwould be frowned upon, if not scandalous, today. Be that as it may, among the easiest shots in journalism is to measure people against the standards of our day and not their day.

Its worth noting here that from the earliest years of the club and the tournament, journalists were accorded uncommonly gracious treatment. This was at a time not far removed from the era when golf professionals and newspapermen were treated as second-class citizens, generally banned from entering clubhouses. This was particularly true in the British Isles, where the Upstairs, Downstairs mentality reigned supreme. For example, in the 1923 British Open at Royal Troon, professionals were banned from the clubhouse, so the irrepressible Walter Hagen ordered his limousine to park in front of the clubhouse, where a table set with the finest china and silver was prepared and Hagen was served a lavish lunch. Naturally, the members were outraged. Everyone else was thrilled.