Royal and Ancient: Blood, Sweat, and Fear at the British Open - Hardcover

Sampson, Curt

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375502785 ISBN 13: 9780375502781

Publisher: Villard, 2000

Synopsis

For a century and a half, the best golf players in the world have, once a year, attempted to beat the weather, the pressure, and one of the toughest courses in the world at the British Open. In Royal and Ancient, Curt Sampson, the bestselling author of Hogan and The Masters, draws a definitive and affectionate portrait of this legendary tournament, with a fascinating narrative of both its rich history and its exciting present.

The thread of Royal and Ancient is the 1999 cham-pionship--the most astonishing four days in British Open history. Sampson follows individual players as they meet the gut-wrenching challenge of the links at Carnoustie: the icy classicist, Steve Elkington; the good-looking bon vivant, Andrew Magee; the struggling hopeful, Clark Dennis; Zane Scotland, the youngest Open qualifier in history. Sampson is  there for Jean Van de Velde's dramatic collapse on the final day, probing both Van de Velde and his caddie for their emotional insights. He gets inside the heads of stars and journeymen, caddies and groundskeepers, and shows how they prepare and how they think as the tournament pro-gresses, from the qualifying rounds to the practice sessions, all the way through the play-off on the final day.

Beyond his excellent reportage, Curt Sampson captures British Open history as it's never been captured before. With an insider's knowledge and expertise, he draws us into the rare-fied atmosphere of tradition and myth, telling the amazing--and sometimes heartbreaking--stories of past champions, of triumphs and tragedies, of deaths and ghosts. We hear the unexpectedly poignant story of one of the early greats, Tommy Morris, the invincible champion of the 1860s and 1870s, and explore the loyal Scottish fascination with the legendary Ben Hogan. The reminiscences of past and current participants combine with the behind-the-scenes stories of everyone from the club superintendent to the local pub owners to give an intimate look at this unique tournament.

In his book The Majors, John Feinstein called Curt Sampson's The Masters the best book ever written about that Augusta event. Now, in Royal and Ancient, Sampson cracks the inner circle of another remarkable major to provide this fascinating and truly all-embracing view of the British Open.

About this title

Review:

No one who saw it will likely forget French golfer Jean Van de Velde's catastrophe at Carnoustie on the 72nd hole of the 1999 British Open. "Such theater!" writes Ben Hogan biographer Curt Sampson in Royal and Ancient, his stunning chronicle of the event. "Character is destiny, the ancient Greeks believed. And to many people--at Carnoustie and elsewhere, then and now--Van de Velde's unfolding disaster looked like an unmistakable expression of French style: cavalier, ironic, and more concerned with style than substance. He seemed to be treating the beloved Jug like a chamber pot." In one golf hole, what had been a tour de force devolved into a tour de farce. What writer could ask for more?

Not Sampson, who deftly uses Carnoustie as a prism to refract the history of golf's most storied tournament. Weaving back and forth through time, Royal and Ancient links the 1999 champion--playoff winner Paul Lawrie--to champions past, from the first--Willie Park in 1860--to Bobby Jones, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and to those such as Ben Hogan, Gary Player, and Tom Watson who've conquered the wind-wracked Carnoustie track before him. In his detailed recounting of '99 affair, Sampson certainly reports on the shots, but goes well beyond them into the minds of such competitors as veteran Steve Elkington; Zane Scotland, the youngest qualifier ever; and even John Philp, Carnoustie's proud, beleaguered superintendent, who constantly battled the elements and carping of the players and the press. Fittingly, the last word goes to Van de Velde, a fine golfer who chose the one moment the world was watching to come utterly undone. "It took a lot of bad luck for me to lose," he tells Sampson months after the tournament. "When I think about it now, I'm a little nostalgic.... It's not like I burn emotionally... but... I left more over there than I expected." Sampson brings it, and a good deal more, back for us. --Jeff Silverman

From the Back Cover:

Praise for Curt Sampson

The Masters
"Jack Nicklaus may own six green jackets, but no one has captured the Masters like Sampson."

-The (Baton Rouge) Advocate

"Sampson has put together a great story of a powerful institution."
--austin.citysearch.com

"[Curt Sampson's] fine new book, The Masters, is the only way we mortals are ever going to gain entrée to the hallowed Augusta National Golf Club."
--The Dallas Morning News

Hogan
"Curt Sampson has dissected Ben Hogan and what he is about in greater detail than anyone. This is a fascinating look at perhaps the most feared and revered golfer of all time."

--Ben Crenshaw

"A superb and insightful portrait of the most elusive and complex champion in golf history . . . worth every damn cent you're asked for it."

--Guy Yocom, Golf Digest

"Rings true as a Hogan iron to the green." --Sam Blair, The Dallas Morning News

The Eternal Summer
"I must congratulate Curt Sampson for his passion for the game as well as his skill with a pen. . . . The Eternal Summer will make you feel like you are there at Augusta, Cherry Hills, St. Andrews, and many other places. I know. I was there."

--Dan Jenkins

"Moving, vivid, and funny . . . never a dull moment. . . . The Eternal Summer is the most enjoyable book on any subject I've read in a long time."
--Jack Purcell, Jr., publisher, Southern Links

"Nineteen-sixty was as interesting a year in golf as I've ever known. Curt Sampson has captured it perfectly and perceptively. This book should be in every golfer's library."

--Ben Wright, CBS-TV

About this edition

• Publisher: Villard
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0375502785
• ISBN 13: 9780375502781
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272