Pleasant Recollection

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	• The Match: The Day the Game of Golf Changed Forever Mark Frost Hyperion, 2007 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 65 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Very Good Book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. A Great dramatic match sandwiched between stories of great golfers who are now only mentioned in passing at the televised Majors.

The author's description of Cypress Point cannot compete with actually seeing this amazing course. I ended up googling Cypress Point to see 15 through 18.... I know its lame, but pictures of the course would have been a plus.

Great read!

I give what I consider to be the best golf book for Christmas to several of my friends and relatives each year. This is the one for '07!

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Pleasant Recollection

Having the opportunity to play Cypress Point twice and getting to know Harvie Ward a number of years after "The Match', this book had special meaning to me. First I was able to appreciate the great feat that these four golfers accomplished on that special day and second what a great golfer and special friend Harvie Ward was, something that I didn't appreciate back then. Thanks Mark Frost for bringing this back to life.

Larry Wagner

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A page-turner

While I enjoy an occasional round of golf and watching PGA tournaments on TV, I m not much of a golf history buff. When I heard an interview with Mark Frost on a podcast, discussing The Match, I knew I had to read it.

The Match is the story of a friendly round of golf instigated by Eddie Lowery, the boy caddie of Francis Ouimet, whose story was chronicled by Frost in his earlier book The Greatest Game Ever Played Grade: A+ . What made The Match unique, was the foursome that played: Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, Ken Venturi, and Harvie Ward. Nelson and Hogan were legendary professional golfers, though somewhat past their prime. Venturi and Ward were a couple of young amateurs who worked for Lowery at his car dealership an arrangement that proved detrimental to Ward .

The book casts this battle as one between golf professionals and amateurs for the future of golf. Contrary to the current climate, the PGA tour was hardly a jetsetting high-paying profession. It was a grind that saw pros driving from tournament to tournament, staying in cheap motels, and hoping to earn enough money to buy their meals and repay their backers.

The Match took place at Cypress Point Golf Club, an apparently extraordinary course that is no longer host to PGA events. It was played prior to the 1956 Crosby Clambake, which has since become the Pebble Beach Pro-Am. The backstory about Cypress Point and the Clambake is fascinating enough in its own right. But what makes the book a page turner is the tension of The Match itself. The four golfers played an almost unbelievable round of match play, in which neither side ever led by more than one hole I won t spoil the story by telling you which team won. Interspersed are the life stories of the four protagonists. While I knew of Nelson, Hogan, and Venturi, I didn t know the story of their lives and how they intertwined. I hadn t heard of Ward, which is a shame, because he was an incredible amateur golfer who was seen as the successor to Bobby Jones.

My one complaint with the book was the prose Frost occasionally used in describing the golfers lives. For example:

"You didn't need a crystal ball to see that worldly success waited just down the road for Harvie; he wore the can t miss sign in neon lights a mile high and exuded the rare intangible confidence of a man supremely comfortable in his own skin. That future appeared all mapped out; Harvie just had to fill in the details on the requisition; sign on the dotted line; and start living the life of Reilly."

I'm not sure what exactly bothers me about the language, perhaps the use of cliches or hyperbole. However, this is outweighed by the way Frost paints the picture of Cypress Point and The Match.

If you have even a passing interest in golf, or appreciate the competition of elite athletes, you owe it to yourself to read The Match.

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A Great Read

Written in the same exciting and engrossing style as his earlier book "The Greatest Game Ever Played", Mark Frost brings to life what may have been the greatest golf competition every concieved. Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson paired against Ken Venturi and Harvie Ward in a best ball match by Eddie Lowery, the smart-mouthed middle-aged former caddie for Francis Ouimet who carried the bag at nine years old when Ouimet became the first amateur to win the U. S. Open in 1913.

Frost's organization for the book makes it impossible to put down, and easy to read in a day or so. He weaves the hole-by-hole descriptions of the match with interlaced stories of each of the main characters, in a style that is humorous, poignant and informative.

This match marked the beginning of the end of amateur golf as Bobby Jones envisioned it and the end of the beginning of professional golf as we know it today.

Anyone who loves golf and wants to understand its rich history in America must read Frost's books.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, page 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

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