Herbert Warren Wind, 89, Golf Writer

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The New York Sun

Herbert Warren Wind, the New Yorker writer who coined the term “Amen Corner” at Augusta National, died of pneumonia Monday at a nursing facility in Bedford, Mass. He was 89.


Wind, a master of golf prose for more than four decades, was renowned for his lengthy profiles – he wrote longhand and in pencil – during two stints with the New Yorker (1948-53, 1960-90) and for Sports Illustrated (1954-60).


The Masters was an annual stop for Wind, who traveled the world profiling the legendary players and moments in the sport. While working for Sports Illustrated in 1958, he dubbed the 11th, 12th, and 13th holes at Augusta National as “Amen Corner.”


Wind considered Ben Hogan the best player ever, and teamed up with him to write the still-popular instruction book “Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf.”


Wind wrote with a fluid, graceful style – and he seldom wrote anything that wasn’t several thousand words long.


“I needed 5,000 words to clear my throat,” he once joked.


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