Since its founding by Bobby Jones in 1933, the Augusta National Golf Club has become the most fabled, mythologized, and controversial golf course in the world. It's also the most exclusive — which means that for most of us, this book is the closest we'll come to experiencing it. In Golf Heaven, celebrated golf writer John Andrisani presents twenty-five first-person narratives — by pro golfers, celebrities, politicians, business people, and others — about playing the course and being a guest at the club for the first time. The list of contributors includes everyone from Bill Gates to Annika Sorenstam, Clint Eastwood to Charlie Rose, Bill Murray to Rudy Giuliani. These are intimate, never-before-told stories that we never thought we'd hear — from misadventures on Magnolia Lane to first-tee jitters, from what it's like to spend the night in the legendary "Crow's Nest" to a tour of the club's vast wine cellar, from high jinks in the caddie shack to the club's secret recipe for clam chowder (the "best in the world," according to many).
Solid book about the history and absolute honor it is to walk the grounds of Augusta National. I was fortunate enough to attend the 2017 masters as a patron and hope to play the course one day. Wish the book would have mentioned more of the intricacies of the patron experience.