Harry Sprague meets the Masters is taken from Herbert Warren Wind’s novel On the tour with Harry Sprague. It is the tale of a fictional Nothern Michigan pro-golfer who is on the 1960 PGA tour. Sprague writes letters to his sponsor, Mr. Amos Tabor from the road, and Harry Sprague meets the Masters consists of four of those letters.
Although this story didn’t mean much to me, I think golf players would love this! Sprague’s opponents are actual golf players, and there are some interesting bits like Sprague “straightening” Arnold Palmer’s play (Palmer, according to Wikipedia, is considered as “one of the greatest and most charismatic players” in the history of golf!). Of Jack Nicklaus (who finished the 1960 US Open in second place, behind Arnold Palmer), Sprague writes:
Jack has got a fair swing for a fellow who stays up north in the winter, but it is plain to see he is an amateur. By this I mean that when Jack Nicklaus hits a bad shot, he groans out loud at himself instead of knowing enough to cover up and look like he was wearing slippery spikes. Then when he hits an approach up stiff, he gets real excited about it and smiles all over the place instead of acting like the shot is below average for him and he is practically bored by it.
Even though Sprague is not in the same league as these professional golfers in the story, one gets the sense that he is a bit full of himself! 😀
Charles McGrath’s in his Introduction says Herbert Warren Wind’s story is “a transparent imitation” of You Know Me Al by Ring Lardner. You Know Me Al is the story of Jack Keefe, a fictional bush league baseball player who gets a chance to pitch for the Chicago White Sox, and the novel consists of letters Keefe writes to his friend Al. So according to McGrath, Wind took Lardner’s idea to have “a series of letters written by a clueless, swollen-headed and semi-literate athlete,” then “switched it over from baseball to golf with equally foolproof results.” I imagine golf players will agree with this!
Red Lips and Bibliomaniacs 