Home > Sports & Games > Golf > Who's Your Caddy?

Who's Your Caddy?: Looping for the Great, Near Great, and Reprobates of Golf

List Price: $14.95

Save 10.0%

You Pay: $13.46

Want this eBook?Our eBook Library Software is required to purchase and download eBooks. Download it here.

Tell a Friend

Overview

The funniest and most popular sportswriter in America abandons his desk at Sports Illustrated to caddy for some of the world's most famous golfers, and some celebrity duffers, recounting it all in this hilarious and revealing look at the world of golf.

Editorial Reviews

Hilarious misadventures, catty gossip and downright embarrassing facts are only part of the appeal of this deftly written journal by Sports Illustrated writer Reilly (Missing Links). Caddying for a golf pro just might be every amateur golfer's dream. Reilly managed to talk 11 players, media personalities and one infamous gambler into letting him follow them inside the ropes, even though he had no experience as a caddy and showed that fact so many times that John Daly nicknamed him "Dumbshit." Consider spilling Jack Nicklaus's clubs out onto the wet ground, just as he asks you for a new ball. Or leaving David Duval's golf clubs in the locker room overnight (the ones he won the British Open with) and not being able to find them the next morning. Self-help guru Deepak Chopra recently took up the game and proved that although he may be able to control the aging process, hitting driver is beyond his mystical powers. Reilly gets serious while carrying Casey Martin's bag, the pro golfer who sued the PGA Tour for the right to ride a golf cart during tournaments (Martin suffers from a rare leg disorder that makes every step excruciatingly painful). Billionaire Donald Trump, comedian Bob Newhart, beautiful LPGA pro Jill McGill, Tom Lehman (there's a "Jimmy Stewart decency about him"), legendary gambler Dewey Tomko and blind golfer Bob Andrews round out the field and provide Reilly ample inspiration for a truly funny, don't-miss read. (May) Forecast: Just in time for Father's Day, the book will get added attention as a first serial in Sports Illustrated and with Reilly making an appearance on the Today show. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information. -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.

Author Information

Bio of Rick Reilly

Rick Reilly is the author of the novel Missing Links. His "Life of Reilly" column appears each week in Sports Illustrated. Five out of the last six years, his peers have voted him National Sportswriter of the Year. He lives in Denver, Colorado.

Customer Reviews

There are no customer reviews available at this time. To add your review, Register or Sign In to your account using our free eBook Library Software.

Additional Info

Imprint

Doubleday

Filesize

590.59 KB

Number of Pages

272

eBook ISBN

9780385510899

Excerpt from: Who's Your Caddy? by Rick Reilly

You ever notice anybody standing next to Boston Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez as he's firing cheese at the Yankees

Ever notice any reporters kneeling down in the huddle as Brett Favre calls, "Red right, x-cross, y-drag wheel" in the huddle

Ever notice any slow white guys helping Allen Iverson decide which direction the air conditioning is coming from as he sets up for a three-pointer

Me, neither.

Only golf lets you do it.

Only in golf can a schmoe like me lurk right there next to David Duval, in the middle of the fairway, as he decides what he's going to hit to a green surrounded by 10,000 people. Only in golf can a hack like me read a putt at the Masters as a huge gallery watches in absolute silence. Only in golf can a pest like me help Jack Nicklaus decide whether it's a hard 7 or an easy 8. "Personally," I told Jack, "I'd skull a 9."

Which is the main reason I wanted to write this book. I'll never play golf like those guys. I'll never play it like those guys' gardeners. But as a caddy, I can be closer to great athletes without actually being one than in any other sport.

But I didn't want to just be inside the head of great golfers. I wanted to be inside the head of golf itself -- awful golfers, blind golfers, gambling golfers, celebrity golfers, crazed golfers, and guru golfers. Carrying a bag for 18 holes is known in caddyese as a "loop." And I wanted to find The Perfect Loop, The Funniest Loop, and The Worst Loop.

Besides, when you caddy, you get to hang out with caddies. That's the other reason I wanted to write it. I happen to love caddies. It's about time somebody stood up for them. Do you realize, in the early 1920s in this country, rich guys would hire two caddies -- one to carry the bag and one to cover himself in jelly in order to attract flies away from the golfers They were known as "jam boys." Can you imagine doing that to anyone now Except, of course, members of Congress

I happen to think caddies deserve better, mostly because caddies are more fun than strippers and firehouse poles. When I cover a golf tournament for Sports Illustrated, I'd be toast without caddy quotes. I'll send a limo for the caddies. All the stuff you hear from the players, agents, swing coaches, mind gurus, flex trainers, and masseurs don't equal one cigarette-smoking caddy going, "Sumbitch is golfin' his ball" or "My man is hookin' like Divine Jones."

By the way, I never took any money out of any caddy's pocket. The deal was the same whenever I approached a pro: I couldn't be paid. The player could do anything with my percentage he wanted, including keeping it, giving it to his caddy, or lighting cigars with it. But I couldn't get a dime.