Author: Rick Reilly
Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: Doubleday; 1st edition (May 6, 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0385488858
ISBN-13: 978-0385488853
This is a book that I put off reading for so long, it was almost like I had the only chocolate ice cream on the planet sitting in my freezer but I didn’t want to eat it for fear that I would never have that taste again. On one hand, one of my favorite, if not the favorite, sports writers, Rick Reilly, penned a new novel (well, new to me at least). On the other hand, it was about golf, a sport that intrigues me just about as much as Star Jones, chicken livers and pedicures. Combined. But, as some of us have found, Reilly could write a treatise on the solidifying of concrete and it would, at the very least, be funny. So, with a looooong flight to bide my time, it was finally the moment to crack open Who’s Your Caddy.
As Reilly has always done, he took a different tact in writing this book. Instead of interviewing the caddies themselves and coming up with an idea, a notion, of what’s it like to caddy for some of the world’s best golfers and biggest gamblers, he went right out and got on the bag himself numerous times. He caddied for Jack Nicklaus, John Daly, David Duval, Casey Martin, Tommy Aaron, an LPGA star, the most devout gambler maybe in the world and one of the most devout thinkers of our times. Oh, and a blind guy. All in all, the book becomes less of a celebration of the game Reilly loves so dearly and more of a look at the treatment of caddies and the day-to-day sluggery that is being part of a professional sports team. Moreover, the book takes a true insiders look at what it’s like to be between the ropes on every level of competitive golf.
While the book in and of itself is the usually great Reilly work, filled with those classic metaphors that only Rick himself could come up with, there were four chapters of this book that are must-reads. First, Reilly caddies for Casey Martin around the time that the Supreme Court decision about Martin’s ability to use a cart is due to come down. Martin’s openness about the decision and how it affects his future and, specifically, the part about Reilly seeing and touching Martin’s bad leg is one of the most tug-at-your- heartstrings/ give this guy a chance part of any book I’ve ever opened. Second, when Reilly caddies for one of the world’s most notorious golf and poker gamblers, the results are both hilarious and a fantastic peak into the mind of a gambler at their highest levels. Third, Reilly caddies for the President of the Blind Golfers Association. This chapter is epic for both the realization of what it takes to caddy for a blind man and Reilly’s subsequent tests on some of his own theories about how difficult it would be to play in such a manner. And lastly, the chapter where he caddied for an LPGA player. Truthfully, I didn’t think this particular chapter would be any more distinguishing than the other chapters on professional golfers, as most of the professional golf chapters in the book are funny but I just don’t care enough about the players themselves for it to be that interesting to me, but this story was a reread and it ended up being my favorite chapter. Reilly goes into detail about the ladies tour and the taboo subjects that are always bandied about by their male counterparts and the media, the differences in carrying a woman’s bag instead of a man’s (and it has nothing to do with weight or amount of clubs, rest assured) and completely different nature of the LPGA vs. the PGA. I don’t know how to write any more about this chapter without giving away a lot of the premise, so let’s just say it is worth the price of the book alone and leave it at that.
Asking me about a Reilly book is much akin to asking a vampire about blood- we’re both going to say we love them 100% of the time and bring them on with as much pace and as much frequency as you possibly can. His books are riveting. The Life of Reilly (Reilly’s epic collection of Sports Illustrated back page articles) is a must-read for anyone (sports fan or non sports fan) and should be put in every high school curriculum. This book, though, was a tour de force seeing as an avid non-golfer such as myself thought it fantastic.
If there is a golfer in you, this book should be seminal. If you have a comedic bone in your body, stop by the bookstore on the way home. And, if you’re a Rick Reilly fan, it’ll be like putting on those great old slippers that you love so much. If you are any of these people, you’ll thank me later.
