‘A Golf Story’ by Charles Price

By: Doug Porter


A Golf Story, by Charles Price, is an interesting story which attempts to weave together three stories: the development of the Augusta National Golf Club, the advent of the Masters Tournament, and the amazing career of the legendary Bobby Jones.

What Price gives you is an all too-brief account of the first two, and spends most of the book going into the fine details of Jones’ illustrious career. The book might as well be entitled The Bobby Jones Story.

That being said, for those of you who are interested in an overview of how Augusta National came to be, and how the Masters Tournament grew into what is, arguably, the finest golf tournament in the world, Price gives you enough to whet your appetite; and they are interesting tales. In the end, though, you are left wanting more detail, and a deeper exploration into the fascinating story of the golf course.

For you Bobby Jones fans, the book provides a wonderful chronology of Jones’ career, and describes in detail many of his finest moments and biggest wins, and the always-interesting stories describing the nail-biting details of major tournaments, and how often victories are a result of many different factors, luck included. Clearly, Price revered Jones, and was afforded ample access to him as one of the inner circle.

All in all, this book makes for interesting reading. It just leaves you wanting more.

‘A Golf Story,’ by Charles Price, Benchmark Press, 1986, $19.95 (hardcover), ISBN 0-6891-1560-1

Doug Porter has been a high school teacher in Seattle for the past 18 years. A graduate of Occidental College in Los Angeles, and a three-time NCAA small college national champion in the decathlon and pole vault, Porter has come to the game of golf later in life, which has left him pondering what took him so long! A scratch golfer, and now completely bitten by the bug, Porter enjoys teaching the game to his seven-year-old son.