Mr. Fairway is at the beach this week and while lolling in the sun finished reading The Match: The Day the Game of Golf Changed Forever by Mark Frost. The book chronicles an 18-hole challenge at Cypress Point between a team of pros Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson and top amateurs Ken Venturi and Harvie Ward. Two millionaires – Eddie Lowery (who caddied for Francis Ouimet) and George Coleman – made the bet on the eve of Bing Crosby’s 1956 pro-am at Pebble Beach. Frost, who also wrote about Ouimet’s 1913 U.S. Open victory (The Greatest Game Ever Played), offers a detailed account of duel interspersed with interesting background on the players and their relationships. Hogan was in his prime and Nelson had already retired to this ranch in Texas. Venturi had yet to turn pro and Ward was the most decorated amateur of the time. This is a great read that was especially interesting to Mr. Fairway because it brought back many memories of his round at Cypress Point a decade ago. Mr. Fairway’s only quibble is that the subtitle is a quite a stretch of literary license. But it’s a wonderfully written book that offers nice historical context to the rise in popularity of professional golf.
Hitting range balls while wondering whatever happened to Carl Paulson.
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