Book report: Who’s Your Caddy? Looping for the Great, Near Great, and Reprobates of Golf, by Rick Reilly


Book report: Who’s Your Caddy? Looping for the Great, Near Great, and Reprobates of Golf, by Rick Reilly

A lot of sports fans don’t care for Rick Reilly as a sports writer. He is routinely trashed by the sports talk station I listen to. But I think he is really and inventively funny. That’s what drew me to this book, even though I don’t play golf or know much about it.

Reilly’s concept for this is that in no other sport can an ordinary person be so close to a star athlete while they’re actually competing as in golf, where the caddy is right near the player for the entire round. So, to see what it’s like being so up close and personal, Reilly asked many golfers if he could caddy for them for a round. Many said no, but a few said yes. This book is based on Reilly’s experiences caddying for golfers including John Daly, David Duval, Tom Lehman, Jack Nicklaus, Deepak Chopra, Donald Trump, professional gambler Dewey Tomko, Bob Newhart, Casey Martin (whose rare leg ailment allowed him to use a golf cart during matches), LPGA pro Jill McGill, and blind golfer Bob Andrews.

Even though Reilly is an experienced and enthusiastic golfer and student of the game, he proves to be a colossally inept caddy. Besides ordinary faux pas such as forgetting items from the golf bag and giving incorrect distances to the green, he also spills Jack Nicklaus’s clubs all over the course during a match, and leaves David Duval’s clubs in a locker room overnight, from which they disappear.

Even I have heard about megastars like Jack Nicklaus, so it’s fascinating to hear about what goes on behind the scenes with such players. The contrast between the men’s PGA and the world of the LPGA was remarkable. The section about Bob Newhart has a lot of anecdotes about other celebrity golfers.

The book is howlingly funny, even to someone like me who doesn’t know much about the game. It’s not just the strange and embarrassing things that happen during the rounds while Reilly is caddying. He also hears a lot of stories about a lot of other players. Reilly has a terrific style, combining golf lingo with his own creative ways to describe things. I was sorry when the book was done.

Besides the entertainment part, I learned a lot about how golf is played, and how difficult and complex the job of a caddy really is. The next time I play mini-golf or watch golf on TV, it will be with a greater appreciation of its intricacies.

Highly recommended if you like golf or funny books.

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