This image is the cover for the book America's Gift to Golf

America's Gift to Golf

The dean of American golf writers pays tribute to the nation’s greatest tournament

Over the course of his forty-year career at the New Yorker and Sports Illustrated, Herbert Warren Wind covered the game of golf from many different angles, providing readers with eloquent insights on the iconic courses of Scotland as well as Bing Crosby’s lifelong love affair with the sport. But no aspect of golf was closer to Wind’s heart, or more intimately associated with his name, than the annual Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Course.

Recounting Arnold Palmer’s victory in 1958, Wind coined the phrase “Amen Corner” to describe the fateful stretch of golf course including the 11th, 12th, and 13th holes. To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the first Augusta National Invitation, held in 1934, Wind eloquently recounted a half-century’s worth of highlights, from Bobby Jones’s original vision of an informal competition between his old friends and the game’s rising stars, to Ben Crenshaw’s impressive defeat of Tom Watson in the 1984 tournament.

Full of the grand traditions—including green jackets, purple azaleas, and white jumpsuits—and dramatic moments that have made the Masters the most entertaining of the four major championships, America’s Gift to Golf brings the history of this majestic tournament to vivid life and testifies to the enduring legacy of Herbert Warren Wind.

Herbert Warren Wind

Herbert Warren Wind (1916–2005) was a longtime staff writer at the New Yorker and a writer and editor for Sports Illustrated. The dean of American golf writers, he coined the term “Amen Corner” to describe the famous stretch of the Augusta National Golf Course and co-authored books with Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, and Jack Nicklaus. A native of Brockton, Massachusetts, Wind graduated from Yale University and earned a master’s degree in English literature from the University of Cambridge. He began playing golf at a young age and competed in the 1950 British Amateur Championship. His elegant, richly detailed prose matched his meticulous golf course attire of a tweed jacket, shirt, tie, and cap—even in the warmest weather. Wind wrote or edited fourteen books during his lifetime, including The Story of American Golf (1948), The Gilded Age of Sport (1961), Herbert Warren Wind’s Golf Book (1971) and Following Through (1985). The United States Golf Association’s annual book award is named in his honor, and in 2008 he was posthumously inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. According to his friend Ben Crenshaw, “every time you read Herbert Warren Wind, you get a history lesson, a golf lesson, and a life lesson.”
 

Open Road Integrated Media