Wednesday, June 4, 2008

The Match: The Day the Game of Golf Changed Forever

Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #273 in Books
Published on: 2007-11-06
Released on: 2007-11-06
Number of items: 1
Binding: Hardcover
272 pages

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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In 1956, millionaires Eddie Lowery and George Coleman made an off-the-cuff bet on a golf match and inadvertently set up one of the sport's most climactic duels; this one casual game has become the sport's great suburban legend. Frost (The Greatest Game Ever Played) diligently covers the two pros slightly past their prime, Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson, who squared off against two top amateurs, Harvie Ward and Ken Venturi. It happened in the last hours of Hogan's playing career, and ten years after Byron had left the stage, but at the near pinnacle of the amateurs', whose personalities couldn't have been more diametrically opposed (Venturi the classic up-and-comer, and Ward the inveterate playboy who performed hungover on two hours' sleep). The match itself, scrupulously teased out by Frost for maximum drama, is less interesting than the people involved and the historical backdrop. The match happened near the sport's great cusp, as it transitioned from something for amateurs to a professional career, from a pastime for wastrel aristocrats and entertainers (and Bing Crosby, with his annual booze-soaked Clambake charity matches) to a mainstream suburban obsession. Frost has a penchant toward the florid, but as he writes, Because he was Ben Hogan, and it was just past twilight, and his like would never pass this way again, he captures an elusive magic in this improbable matchup and what it meant for those who played and witnessed it. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Ken Venturi
"The Match was a dream I never thought would come true. If I hadn't been there I wouldn't believe it myself, and if you know anything about sports or the game of golf, once you pick up this book you won't put it down. No one will ever see an event like this again. Fiction can't touch it."

From the Inside Flap


The bestselling author of The Greatest Game Ever Played returns with the story of the little-known match that forever changed the history of golf.

The year: 1956. Four decades have passed since Eddie Lowery came to fame as the ten-year-old caddie to U.S. Open Champion Francis Ouimet. Now a wealthy car dealer and avid supporter of amateur golf, Lowery has just made a bet with fellow millionaire George Coleman. Lowery claims that two of his employees, amateur golfers Harvie Ward and Ken Venturi, cannot be beaten in a best-ball match. Lowery challenges Coleman to bring any two golfers of his choice to the course at 10 a.m. the next day to settle the issue.

Coleman accepts the challenge and shows up with his own power team: Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson, the game's greatest living professionals, with fourteen major championships between them.

In Mark Frost's peerless hands, complete with the recollections of all the participants, the story of this immortal foursome and the game they played that day--legendarily known in golf circles as the greatest private match ever played--comes to life with powerful, emotional impact and edge-of-your-seat suspense.



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Customer Reviews
A great read for golf history
This little book is packed with history of the game of golf. The Match was the perfect vehicle to present the six characters who make this event come to life. Thanks for introducing me to Harvie Ward. To anyone who plays, loves, and/or enjoys this game you must take the few hours it takes to read this compelling story.

One Of This Year's Two Essential Golf Books
Two recent golf books stand out above all others: The Match and Fairway to Hell: Around the World in 18 Holes, which is far and way the most hilarious and insightful. I looked forward to The Match because I had heard it takes place at Cypress Point and I've always dreamed of playing that course, so it was a treat to walk and play it with some of the greatest golfers of all time. In case you haven't heard, the centerpiece of this story is a casual best ball match play round between Ben Hogan and Bryron Nelson (representing the pros) and Ken Venturi and Harvie Ward (representing the amateurs). The time is 1956 and Venturi and Ward are the last of the gentleman amateurs playing at the highest levels of the game. The event is precipitated by a bet instigated by none other than Eddie Lowery, the pint-sized ten-year old caddie from "Greatest Game" who has (believe it or not) become a millionaire California car dealer. This connection to the earlier book is more than a coincidence and Lowery becomes more important to the story than one might expect. The Match is required reading for any serious golfer. On one level learning more about the life story and personality of these great players as well as that of Cypress Point and the Crosby Clambake are quintessential elements of the glory of golf in America. As before, Mark Frost does an amazing job illuminating this background (including a great recounting of the famous Hogan comeback after his accident.)

The Match
If you ejoyed The Greatest Game Ever Played, this is a must. If you play and enjoy golf, this is a must. Was Byron Nelson really that good in '45? Tiger-ya got aways ta go.
The surrounding stories of the players of that incredible day are wonderfully told. Imagine watching Ken Venturi at his amatuer peak, learning about Harvey Ward, was he really considered the second coming of Bobby Jones? The amateurs vs the pros, and not just any pros but Nelson and Hogan. Stroke by stroke, I could actually envision the day, the course, the event...what I wouldn't have given to be there.

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