Rating: 
Summary: Culture Clash Behind The Ropes
Review: Alan Shipnuck has made himself into one of golf's snarkier voices with his classic shaggy-dog-story "Bud Sweat & Tees" and his sometimes barbed, often candid commentary for Sports Illustrated. So what is he doing writing a sober account of one of golf's loudest social controversies? Is he trying to be John Feinstein all of a sudden?Actually, the motivation is purer. Shipnuck offers a detached, analytical view of what exactly happened when the Augusta National Golf Club, site of the Masters, refused demands that it admit women members. "Hootie Johnson has four daughters," one woman tells a reporter. "How does he sleep at night?" While some bashed Hootie, Augusta's chairman and the voice of the gender ban, others excoriated Martha Burk, the activist whose cry for membership equality seemed at times a personal crusade. Ultimately, it came down to how people felt about things like abortion, equal pay in the office, glass ceilings, female circumcision, anything but golf. That's about my only problem with Shipnuck's book. I want him writing about golf, not peripheral culture issues like this. He overblows the importance of this particular story. But Shipnuck does a great job putting both sides of the argument in a fair light, and detailing in a clinical scorekeeper fashion just how the controversy was resolved. Shipnuck's interest is not ideology but people. He manages to get under the placards and in the face of just about everyone who took a stand on this issue, including, in exclusive interviews, the two main players. Hootie comes across as a prickly but likable character, neither as exclusionary nor as unthinking as his critics often claimed. Martha is a cagey, doughty crusader with periods of understandable exhaustion and a fine sense of humor. When someone brings her an anti-Martha T-shirt ["If Martha had balls...She could join the club"] she gets a real kick from reading it. She needed that sense of humor, as her strong charge, seemingly on the verge of making a miracle and bringing women members to Augusta, caused instead another miracle, that of making Americans feel sorry for a coterie of rich white men. Overplaying her hand, claiming common cause with U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq, and equating the Augusta National with the Ku Klux Klan all killed the momentum of her campaign, along with the savvy PR work of Augusta's media consultant, Jim McCarthy. Also damaging was the fickleness of the press, rallying behind her and then against her. Shipnuck's best work, an easy five-star essay on its own, details the various shifts in press coverage of the campaign, particularly at the New York Times, which tried to adopt Burk's campaign as their own only to have it instead contribute to the unhorsing of its own executive editor. Shipnuck's pen is sharp, whether the subject is TV commentators like Rich Eisen ["a one-time standup comic masquerading as a journalist." Ouch!], rabid bloggers, and even SI colleague Rick Reilly, who gets into a silly macho face-off with a one-man Imperial Wizard whose only white accoutrements are his prize poodles. In the end, Shipnuck makes clear his belief that Augusta should admit women, that Johnson's refusal has denigrated the sport and forever equated him with the ardent segregationists who supported Jim Crow laws in the 1950s, but that the feminists lost their heads too quickly to make a clear case. The nice thing about "The Battle For Augusta National" is you don't have to share that view to enjoy the book. Shipnuck writes with clarity, humor, and a sense of fairness that really does credit to his profession. That puts him in the minority in the Augusta controversy.
Rating:
Summary: Culture Clash Behind The Ropes
Review: Alan Shipnuck has made himself into one of golf's snarkier voices with his classic shaggy-dog-story "Bud Sweat & Tees" and his sometimes barbed, often candid commentary for Sports Illustrated. So what is he doing writing a sober account of one of golf's loudest social controversies? Is he trying to be John Feinstein all of a sudden? Actually, the motivation is purer. Shipnuck offers a detached, analytical view of what exactly happened when the Augusta National Golf Club, site of the Masters, refused demands that it admit women members. "Hootie Johnson has four daughters," one woman tells a reporter. "How does he sleep at night?" While some bashed Hootie, Augusta's chairman and the voice of the gender ban, others excoriated Martha Burk, the activist whose cry for membership equality seemed at times a personal crusade. Ultimately, it came down to how people felt about things like abortion, equal pay in the office, glass ceilings, female circumcision, anything but golf. That's about my only problem with Shipnuck's book. I want him writing about golf, not peripheral culture issues like this. He overblows the importance of this particular story. But Shipnuck does a great job putting both sides of the argument in a fair light, and detailing in a clinical scorekeeper fashion just how the controversy was resolved. Shipnuck's interest is not ideology but people. He manages to get under the placards and in the face of just about everyone who took a stand on this issue, including, in exclusive interviews, the two main players. Hootie comes across as a prickly but likable character, neither as exclusionary nor as unthinking as his critics often claimed. Martha is a cagey, doughty crusader with periods of understandable exhaustion and a fine sense of humor. When someone brings her an anti-Martha T-shirt ["If Martha had balls...She could join the club"] she gets a real kick from reading it. She needed that sense of humor, as her strong charge, seemingly on the verge of making a miracle and bringing women members to Augusta, caused instead another miracle, that of making Americans feel sorry for a coterie of rich white men. Overplaying her hand, claiming common cause with U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq, and equating the Augusta National with the Ku Klux Klan all killed the momentum of her campaign, along with the savvy PR work of Augusta's media consultant, Jim McCarthy. Also damaging was the fickleness of the press, rallying behind her and then against her. Shipnuck's best work, an easy five-star essay on its own, details the various shifts in press coverage of the campaign, particularly at the New York Times, which tried to adopt Burk's campaign as their own only to have it instead contribute to the unhorsing of its own executive editor. Shipnuck's pen is sharp, whether the subject is TV commentators like Rich Eisen ["a one-time standup comic masquerading as a journalist." Ouch!], rabid bloggers, and even SI colleague Rick Reilly, who gets into a silly macho face-off with a one-man Imperial Wizard whose only white accoutrements are his prize poodles. In the end, Shipnuck makes clear his belief that Augusta should admit women, that Johnson's refusal has denigrated the sport and forever equated him with the ardent segregationists who supported Jim Crow laws in the 1950s, but that the feminists lost their heads too quickly to make a clear case. The nice thing about "The Battle For Augusta National" is you don't have to share that view to enjoy the book. Shipnuck writes with clarity, humor, and a sense of fairness that really does credit to his profession. That puts him in the minority in the Augusta controversy.
Rating: 
Summary: Way More Than Hootie & Martha
Review: Having experienced this story practically at ground zero, in Atlanta, I bought this book almost out of obligation. I'm glad that I did. Even though I followed the story closely I had no idea of the impact of the membership controversy. Alan Shipnuck does a masterful job tracing how a short private letter from Washington feminist Martha Burk to Augusta chairman Hootie Johnson turned into what he calls "the biggest media event in golf history." THere's tons of new information here you won't find anywhere else, whether it's interviews with an impressive number of Augusta National members or behind-the-scenes looks into the newsrooms of the country's most powerful newspapers or connecting the dots on the corporate connections of the clubs powerful CEOs. Being in Atlanta I was particularly interested in the author's examination of the small-town Souther politics that forced Burk to hold her protest in THe Pit, a grassy field a mile from the club. The book very skillfully illustrates how the influence of the club affected the decision-making of the mayor, the city council, the local sherrif, and even a federal judge. There is a lot of insight here and a lot of analysis, which helped me to better understand a story I didn't realize was so complicated.
Rating:
Summary: Way More Than Hootie & Martha
Review: Having experienced this story practically at ground zero, in Atlanta, I bought this book almost out of obligation. I'm glad that I did. Even though I followed the story closely I had no idea of the impact of the membership controversy. Alan Shipnuck does a masterful job tracing how a short private letter from Washington feminist Martha Burk to Augusta chairman Hootie Johnson turned into what he calls "the biggest media event in golf history." THere's tons of new information here you won't find anywhere else, whether it's interviews with an impressive number of Augusta National members or behind-the-scenes looks into the newsrooms of the country's most powerful newspapers or connecting the dots on the corporate connections of the clubs powerful CEOs. Being in Atlanta I was particularly interested in the author's examination of the small-town Souther politics that forced Burk to hold her protest in THe Pit, a grassy field a mile from the club. The book very skillfully illustrates how the influence of the club affected the decision-making of the mayor, the city council, the local sherrif, and even a federal judge. There is a lot of insight here and a lot of analysis, which helped me to better understand a story I didn't realize was so complicated.
Rating:
Summary: "Bud, Sweat & Tees" meets the Masters
Review: I absolutely loved Alan Shipnuck's last book, "Bud, Sweat & Tees". I have been wondering what he would write next, and have to say I was surprised that he chose such a serious topic. But even without Rich Beem's crazy ways or his caddie's potty mouth and harem of strippers, Shipnuck brought the same sense of humor and light touch the Augusta controversy. The result is a very interesting, readable book.
Rating:
Summary: finally some balance
Review: I am from Hootie Johnson's hometown and have been so fed up with the slanted coverage about him and Augusta. I feared the worst when I picked up this book but was very pleasantly surprised at the balanced and professional tone of the author. He was certainly critical of Hootie at times, but I felt the criticisms were fair and based on good research. They weren't cheap personal attacks like in all the newspapers. I have to say, the book is so well-written that I was even forced to consider Martha Burke's position. I can't say I like her now but I do have a better understanding of what she was fighting for. I would definitely recommend this book if you care about the people and the issues involved.
Rating:
Summary: Very good, but...
Review: I live in Augusta, rent my house out during Masters Week, but don't play golf or belong to Augusta National. This book is well-written and fascinating, with a few flaws. The author tries to cover a lot of stories in one book: the sport of golf generally, Augusta National, the Masters, Hootie Johnson, Martha Burk, press coverage of the controversy (including the subsequent implosion of the New York Times), and the community of Augusta. The first six are well done (except he gives Martha Burk a pass -- she has some amazingly radical ideas and positions he did not cover) and is far too kind to her. (She vanished completely at the 2004 Masters, which he does not mention). The last topic fails miserably. The author does not understand the South or Southern hospitality. He is shocked that we have an old Confederate monument on Broad Street downtown. Well, show me a town in the South that doesn't! No one here, black or white, gets very excited about it and hasn't for decades. He does not understand (or make an effort to understand) the connections a Federal judge would legitimately have with the local community in a small town. He neglects the local angle to the story and distorts what he does not neglect. The book is full of careless editorial errors -- in one sentence he refers to Fort Dixon in New Jersey (which is actually Fort Dix) and Fort Devin Massachusets (Fort Devens), errors he could have corrected with minimal care, then jumps all over other writers for confusing Augusta National and Augusta Country Club. This kind of thing makes one wonder about the accuracy of the rest of the book, in the areas which I am not so familiar with. Overall a good read, and reasonably balanced.
Rating:
Summary: Very good, but...
Review: I live in Augusta, rent my house out during Masters Week, but don't play golf or belong to Augusta National. This book is well-written and fascinating, with a few flaws. The author tries to cover a lot of stories in one book: the sport of golf generally, Augusta National, the Masters, Hootie Johnson, Martha Burk, press coverage of the controversy (including the subsequent implosion of the New York Times), and the community of Augusta. The first six are well done (except he gives Martha Burk a pass -- she has some amazingly radical ideas and positions he did not cover) and is far too kind to her. (She vanished completely at the 2004 Masters, which he does not mention). The last topic fails miserably. The author does not understand the South or Southern hospitality. He is shocked that we have an old Confederate monument on Broad Street downtown. Well, show me a town in the South that doesn't! No one here, black or white, gets very excited about it and hasn't for decades. He does not understand (or make an effort to understand) the connections a Federal judge would legitimately have with the local community in a small town. He neglects the local angle to the story and distorts what he does not neglect. The book is full of careless editorial errors -- in one sentence he refers to Fort Dixon in New Jersey (which is actually Fort Dix) and Fort Devin Massachusets (Fort Devens), errors he could have corrected with minimal care, then jumps all over other writers for confusing Augusta National and Augusta Country Club. This kind of thing makes one wonder about the accuracy of the rest of the book, in the areas which I am not so familiar with. Overall a good read, and reasonably balanced.
Rating:
Summary: A behind the curtain look at the media
Review: Like a lot of Americans I have become more interested in the role of the media. "The Battle for Augusta National" by Alan Shipnuck is one of the best treatments I have seen on the topic. The stuff about the history of Augusta was well done and I enjoyed the author's amusing sidenotes on everyone from Tiger Woods to Jack Welch, but it is the author's stories about the media that make this a must-read. I became interested in this book when I read a story on Slate that talked about Shipnuck's exclusive interview with Howell Raines of the New York Times. How Raines and the Times covered Augusta was a big story, but Shipnuck is the only reporter to interview Raines, and his analysis belongs in a journalism textbook. Reading the detailed recreations of the decision-making at the Times I could feel myself reading faster and turning the page faster because I was dying to find out what happens next. It was like an Agathie Christie book! There are so many other revelations about the hypocrisy of the media in this book. Did you know that USA Today had a reporter writing about Augusta, even though his dad is a member? Or that the two femle reporters who have made this story such a big deal both have bosses that are members at all-male country clubs? I don't want to spoil all the surprises, but read this book if you want a better understanding about how the media works. I have to warn you it's not very pretty.
Rating:
Summary: A behind the curtain look at the media
Review: Like a lot of Americans I have become more interested in the role of the media. "The Battle for Augusta National" by Alan Shipnuck is one of the best treatments I have seen on the topic. The stuff about the history of Augusta was well done and I enjoyed the author's amusing sidenotes on everyone from Tiger Woods to Jack Welch, but it is the author's stories about the media that make this a must-read. I became interested in this book when I read a story on Slate that talked about Shipnuck's exclusive interview with Howell Raines of the New York Times. How Raines and the Times covered Augusta was a big story, but Shipnuck is the only reporter to interview Raines, and his analysis belongs in a journalism textbook. Reading the detailed recreations of the decision-making at the Times I could feel myself reading faster and turning the page faster because I was dying to find out what happens next. It was like an Agathie Christie book! There are so many other revelations about the hypocrisy of the media in this book. Did you know that USA Today had a reporter writing about Augusta, even though his dad is a member? Or that the two femle reporters who have made this story such a big deal both have bosses that are members at all-male country clubs? I don't want to spoil all the surprises, but read this book if you want a better understanding about how the media works. I have to warn you it's not very pretty.
|
