As Tournaments Go, This One’s a Real Page-Turner

It’s getting so that Masters week without a book (or two or three) about the experience would be like cementing over Rae’s Creek, pulling up all the azaleas, softening up the greens or something equally as unexpected.

There are at least three new books about the Masters out there, including one by Frank Christian, the official photographer of Augusta National, called “Augusta National & The Masters: A Photographer’s Scrapbook.”

Christian’s photographs, and those taken by his father, offer an inside look at the course, which was converted from a nursery in the 1930s. The early photographs are particularly telling, especially those of the clubhouse and the way the golf course evolved into one of the most famous parcels of real estate in history.

Sidney Matthews compiled a number of Bobby Jones’ newspaper columns on golf instruction and produced “Secrets of the Masters.”

It still holds up well. In a chapter about emotions, Jones wrote that a player’s poor performance is dictated by how he feels.

“No player ever collapses because he forgets suddenly how to use his clubs,” Jones wrote.

Steve Eubanks’ “Augusta, Home of the Masters Tournament” might have received scant attention except that the author happened to get fired from his job as general manager of a country club in Alabama four days after it was published.

Sid McDonald, the owner of the club, said there was no connection between Eubanks’ firing and the book, and that there had been no pressure from McDonald’s friends at Augusta National.

But the book’s subtitle may offer a hint at what happened: “A Revealing Look Inside America’s Most Intriguing Golf Club.” Augusta National doesn’t enjoy revealing, or even mildly controversial, which Jack Whitaker and Gary McCord found out.

Eubanks, a freelance journalist, included a chapter about the club’s racial history and references to what club co-founder Clifford Roberts thought of African-Americans.

In any event, it probably just became a big hit, but that’s usually the case with books about the course and the tournament.

Christian’s book is the best-selling non-fiction book in Georgia. It is published by Sleeping Bear Press, which seems set on cornering the market on Masters books. It recently published “The Life & Times of Bobby Jones” and “The Spirit of St. Andrews,” which concerns itself with Augusta National architect Alister MacKenzie.

How many more Masters books are out there? There may be one for every hole on the course.

“I don’t know,” said Brian Lewis of Sleeping Bear Press. “Eighteen is a lot of books.”

SHARK BITE

Hey, has anybody checked Greg Norman’s biorhythm chart for 1997?

Norman may be in for some major happenings, possibly bad ones.

Norman has bad memories at three of the four major venues. The U.S. Open at Congressional is the only site where Norman hasn’t had at least one harrowing experience.

Check the schedule.

Augusta National, the Masters: We know this one (as if we could forget last year), but there also was Larry Mize’s chip-in that beat him in a playoff in 1987, and an errant shot on 18 that kept him from at least a playoff with Jack Nicklaus in 1986.

Troon, the British Open: He lost in a three-way playoff in 1989, when Mark Calcavecchia won.

Winged Foot, the PGA: He lost to Fuzzy Zoeller in a playoff in the 1984 U.S. Open.

DALY UPDATE

John Daly wanted to play in the Masters so badly that he delayed getting help, even though he knew as long as two months ago he had relapsed into alcoholism.

But for the second time in four years, Daly is in a rehabilitation program, this time at the Betty Ford Clinic. He tore up his hotel room in Florida, where he was playing The Players Championship, and was hospitalized with chest pains after a drinking session.

Daly’s agent, John Mascatello, said Tuesday that Daly realized his experiment with social drinking was a failure and he needed help, but put it off because of the Masters.

“John wanted to do this about two months ago, but wanted to get through the Masters because it is his favorite event,” Mascatello said, adding that a probable timetable for Daly’s return would be the Kemper Open, June 5-8.

BOBBY AND TIGER

If there ever was a question just how big Tiger Woods is, consider this programming by CBS on Masters weekend.

On Saturday, the network is broadcasting a show called “The Life and Times of Bobby Jones.”

On Sunday, CBS offers a one-hour special called “Tiger Woods: Son, Hero and Champion,” produced by IMG, which also happens to represent Woods.

It’s quite a programming association: From Jones, arguably the most important figure in the history of golf, to the 21-year-old Woods.

IMAGINE THAT

For what it’s worth, players from Europe have won seven of the last nine Masters tournaments. Sandy Lyle won in 1988; Nick Faldo won in 1989, 1990 and 1996; Ian Woosnam in 1991; Bernhard Langer in 1993 and Jose Maria Olazabal won in 1994.

The only exceptions are Fred Couples in 1992 and Ben Crenshaw in 1995.

Crenshaw said the international players thrive at Augusta because they are accustomed to manufacturing inventive shots around the greens when they are in trouble.

“It’s hard for people to understand the nature of this golf course,” he said. “It allows for so much imagination, and that’s why the international players tend to have success at the Masters.

“Because of the speed of the greens, the weather and the elements of the European courses, they are used to thinking about what their ball will do when it lands. Therefore, there aren’t as many surprises.”

MONEY NEWS

The prize money for the PGA Tour Championship in October has been given a $1-million bump to $4 million, the largest purse ever for an official PGA Tour event.

The winner’s share will be $720,000.

“That’s ridiculous,” said Gene Sarazen, 95, who won six major championships and didn’t total $100,000 in his career. “There’s too much money around. But the dollar is cheaper. It’s only worth about 20 cents.

“I don’t envy the players today. I think they just ran into the times the way they are. But I’m not going to the cemetery broke.”

WATCH THAT TIGER

Sarazen said Woods has abundant talent, but believes a little patience is in order.

“I think he’s a great player, but he’s got a long way to go yet,” Sarazen said. “When I was 20, I won two majors. I won the Open Championship and the PGA. What has he won? College tournaments?”

BIRDIES, BOGEYS, PARS

Vijay Singh finished four under par at the Players Championship, which is notable only because it was the 31st consecutive tournament in which he made the cut. That’s the longest streak on the Tour since Tom Kite made 37 cuts in a row from 1988-1990. . . . At Mission Hills, Betsy King reminded everyone she still is one of the better players on the LPGA Tour, especially on the greens. The key in the desert was knowing which way the putts were going to break and King had a plan: “I still missed them sometimes, but every hole I asked my caddie ‘Where’s Indio?’ ” Did it help? “Yeah, if he pointed in the right direction,” King said. The 41-year-old Hall of Famer also had a kind word for the condition of the course at Mission Hills and slammed the last two tournament courses, the Randolph North golf course in Tucson and Moon Valley Country Club in Phoenix. Said King: “It’s a pleasure to play a well-conditioned golf course because we’ve had a couple of dogs the last two weeks.”