THE MATCH

THE MATCH - THE DAY THE GAME OF GOLF CHANGED FOREVER!

The title of this book says it all. Mark Frost has done an absolutely excellent job of immersing the reader into the moment of this event at Cypress Point Golf Club on a beautiful morning in 1956.

Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, Ken Venturi and Harvie Ward - Nelson and Hogan (the professionals) vs. the amateurs, Venturi and Ward. The wager between Ed Lowrey and George Coleman. What began as an unannounced friendly game quickly became a spectacle as the news of "The Match" spread across the peninsula that morning.

Frost adroitly integrates the histories of the courses and the participants into a read that golf lovers will not be able to put down. Dr. Allister McKenzie, Marion Hollins (whose father's closest friends were William Vanderbilt and J.P. Morgan)and others involved in creating the golf mecca on the Monterey Peninsula were also introduced as part of a golf history lesson along-side the story of "The Match".




I enjoy "Googling" the names of the folks mentioned in this story as I read. It almost makes me feel as if I were there as I look at the pictures of these historic figures.


In the last paragraph of the book it is stated, "No four men will ever play such a match again. No four men like these."

What more needs to be said.