Rating: 
Summary: Straight Down the Middle
Review: 'Who's Your Caddy?: Looping for the Great, Near Great, and Reprobates of Golf' by Rick Reilly is an enjoyable look at the world of golf through the eyes of one who has seen and heard much. Many 'names' are mentioned and lots of secrets revealed. Reilly, a competent, articulate author, writes with rich humour and energy, and his anecdotes are hilarious. My favourite, which features me, Lee Trevino, Frank Sinatra and a state senator, appears on pages 89 to 94:'It was 1972. Augusta. A skins game. I was caddying for Frank Sinatra. The other three players were Trevino, Schwarz and a senator from Michigan. The senator had skinned most of the cash, and with one hole to play, the pot stood at $25,000. As we approached the 18th green, Trevino offered to pay for the round when it was over. Sinatra, who had witnessed the senator pencil in a '1' at the par-5 15th, was having none of it. "Get the round now," he said as he grabbed a .45 from his bag, "and I'll load it. I've shot a lousy score so now I'm gonna shoot a lousy politician. Hey! Get back here you bum! Schwarz, stop flexing and get after him!" I think the senator's still running, although not for office.' 'Who's Your Caddy?' is a book that will be enjoyed by avid golfers and those just out for a walk with a really heavy bag.
Rating:
Summary: Reilly unbound - a treasure for all readers
Review: It's not often I get jealous of other writers, but it's not often that Rick Reillys come along. The umpteen-time Sportswriter of the Year winner graces the back page of Sports Illustrated with slice-of-life gems all the more admirable for the impact he is able to generate within the stifling confines of a severely word-limited format. Although he doubtless tires of hearing it, he is indeed the stylistic heir of the late, wondrously talented and insightful Pulitzer-prize winning sports columnist Jim Murray. Like that legend, Reilly concerns himself with the human side of sports and is endlessly curious about what goes on in the minds and hearts of athletes who are more typically presented to us by the mainstream media as cardboard-cutouts fashioned by front-office flaks. If you read the "Life of Reilly" column in SI as if it were dessert and you wish it were the main course instead, Who's Your Caddy? is your answer. To delve deeper into the psyches of golfers, Reilly cajoled a handful of them into letting him caddy for them, which is roughly akin to Yogi Berra helping you with your PhD thesis in linguistics. Yet, in the same way scientists often learn more from experiments gone wrong than the ones which succeed, the reactions of these players to the self-deprecating Reilly's sincere but fumbling attempts to do what looks so simple on television are especially illuminating. (Not to mention that you'll never again look at caddies in the same way.) Each of the chapters deals with a single golfer and reads like an extended one of his columns: The narrative pace is blistering and the key literary devices, as they were with Murray, are the howlingly funny and apt similes and metaphors. Taking a lesson from the world of screenwriting, Reilly's preference is to show, not tell, and nowhere is this more in evidence than in the piece on Donald Trump, in which he uses lengthy, verbatim recitations from The Donald himself to prove the contention that nothing this business legend does or says is anything less than the best, the most, the highest and the greatest ever. Of all that's been written about Trump, nothing comes closer to conveying what it must be like to spend a few hours with him, and we even get a hint of an answer to the intriguing question of what Trump is like when he's alone: According to Reilly, he never is. It would seem that the man, like a quantum particle, has no objective existence of his own absent an observer. While Reilly takes definitive and consistent points of view about his subjects (one wonders if Tom Lehman is truly a candidate for beatification), he nevertheless is usually honest enough to toss a monkey wrench into the batter even though it might undercut his basic premise. His portrait of John Daly's late-developing defiance in the face of his manifold weaknesses is compelling, but, despite knowing that our sympathy would likely devolve into something less tolerant, Reilly nevertheless describes for us a grotesque scene in which "Long John" graphically justifies that ambiguous moniker in the back seat of a car. Reilly makes it sound funny, sort of, but it's undeniably depressing. Passing up this book because you have no interest in golf or golfers would be like passing up Gulliver's Travels because you have no interest in giants. It's not about golf, it's about people, and golf is simply the vehicle for discovering them. While it's true that you can learn more about someone playing a single round of golf with him than you can living next door to him for six months, imagine caddying for him, as Reilly has. It's also about writing, and this author is a national treasure that anyone interested in language, craft and endless creativity owes it to himself to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointingly average
Review: A writer with Reilly's pedigree, access, and connections should be able to write a better book. These days, all sports writers seem to want to seem as funny and as ironically hopeless as possible, and it ruins their efforts. Reilly ridicules his caddying ability ad nauseum, when in fact everyone KNOWS he's supposed to be bad. This is just veiled irony, of course, because he wouldn't run down his bag-carrying skills if he didn't already have a good gig at Sports Illustrated. There's a difference between taking us into John Daly's private world, and allowing himself to wallow in it. What do we end up knowing about Daly that (a) we wanted to know, and (b) didn't already know? Nothing. What we get is Reilly living the vicarious thrill of hanging out with a guy who might just implode at any moment. This book is just one more step toward the merger of sports, sports journalism, and entertainment. You know, the world where goateed sports enthusiasts come up with cutesy little diminutives of every athlete's name, and every writer/broadcaster has to find a way to be part of the story. In golf this is particularly annoying, because the players usually play along (e.g., the insufferable Jimmy Buffett-wannabe Gary McCord) and, suddenly, golf journalism becomes a parody of itself.
Rating:
Summary: Who's Your Caddy?
Review: Another great Reilly book of insight and laughs. It's been too long
since he penned his style.
Rating: 
Summary: Hilarious and informative "inside the ropes" look at golf
Review: Aside from being a very funny writer (if at times a bit too crude), Rick Reilly is among our best sportswriters because he isn't hamstrung by the symbiotic relationship most of his counterparts have with their teams/sources/beats. He can tell it like it is, and if people are offended, then he's probably on the right track.
"Who's Your Caddy?" had me laughing continuously. Reilly knows comedy, and he knows how to set up a gag. I think he overplayed his ineptitude as a caddy just a bit, but the conceit of this book essentially demands that he fail at the task of caddying for pros like Jack Nicklaus, Tom Lehman and David Duvall. I'm not a regular SI reader and hadn't read much of his work before (though I had seen him on TV a number of times), but I'll now seek out his other books after reading this one. Only Dave Barry, Dan Jenkins and perhaps Christopher Buckley rank as high on my personal laugh-o-meter.
I think golfers or those fairly familiar with the sport and its lingo will love this book, but I'm not sure non-golfers will go for it. I was fascinated by the behind-the-scenes look Reilly was providing, wishing sports journalists would more often take the same kinds of chances. I knew what Reilly was telling me was true, and I sensed when he might have been exaggerating for comedic effect. Former Masters champ Tommy Aaron comes off like a jerk, but you'd never have known that watching the worshipping CBS coverage of the tournament, where announcer Gary McCord was banished for saying Augusta's greens were so fast it looked like the greenskeeper had bikini-waxed them.
Lehman comes off looking like a great guy, and I have no doubt that Reilly is right on the money. The chapter on John Daly is an eye-opener. As is the one on LPGA member Jill McGill. Profanities abound, and the account of who's sleeping with whom -- female golfers with female golfers, female golfers with female caddies, female golfers with male caddies -- is the LPGA's worst PR nightmare. Some would say Reilly has no business writing about that. A lot of those same people would probably also say kids shouldn't read Huck Finn or Washington journalists shouldn't be so negative. Sometimes the truth is uncomfortable. And in the hands of a great writer, it can be a belly-buster.
If you don't think this is your cup of tea, then I'd recommend this book as a gift to a sports fan who isn't necessarily a big reader. It would make a great father's day gift.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious look at golf that even non-golfers will love
Review: C. What do Donald Trump, Jack Nicklaus, Deepak Chopra, and Bob
Newhart have in common? They've all utilized the caddying services
of Rick Reilly, a senior writer for SPORTS ILLUSTRATED and author
of the hilarious WHO'S YOUR CADDY? Reilly set out to find out about what makes golfers tick . . . to do
so, he offered to caddy for them for free . . . although Tiger Woods
turned down his offer (repeatedly), some of the best pros in the world agreed to let him carry their bags--including David Duval,
Tom Lehman and John Daly . . . others did as well, and all their
tales are covered in this book that is a MUST for any golfer
to read. And even though I haven't played the game since I was a teenager,
I loved this book and would recommend it to non-golfers as
well . . . it is funny, in many spots, but also quite moving when
describing the uphill battle faced by Casey Martin when he had
to get the Supreme Court to rule that he should be allowed to
play with a cart. I was also touched by the story of Bob Martin, one of the top
blind golfers in the world. There were several memorable passages; among them:
* The bag was simple and blue, with no sponsor on it, and heavier than
Meatloaf. What's this guy got in there, anvils? I remembered the time
British golf writer Bill Elliot spent a day caddying for Faldo for a story.
Elliott struggled under its weight all day, until he discovered, afterward,
that Faldo had snuck a brick and three dozen extra balls into the bottom
of the bag for a laugh. There is nobody that will crack you up like
that madcap Nick Faldo. * A local TV crew comes up to us on the second fairway. The reporter
asks, "What's the secret to hitting it so far?" "Well," says [John] Daly, "you gotta have a lot of ex-wives. I just think of
them and hit it." * The truth was, I'm sure it's not easy playing with somebody grilling
you between every shot. "Nah," he [Jack Nicklaus] said. "Remember,
I played with Trevino. In fact, one time, we met on the first tee and
I said, 'Lee, I don't want to talk today.' And Lee said, 'You don't have to talk,
Jack. You only have to listen.' "
Rating: 
Summary: Who's Your Caddy: Looping for the Great, Near Great, and Rep
Review: Disappointing. Reilly is a better writer. The book is not so much about caddying, as the title might suggest, as it is a series of lightweight, cliched personality pieces about a variety of golfers, professional and recreational, and pseudo-golfers (that is, big stakes golf gamblers). Was the book edited? As just one glaring example, in the chapter about David Duval Reilly recounts Jack Nicklaus giving advice to David Duval during a practice round at the 1992 U.S. Open while standing on the famous 18th tee. Why not "the famous 18th tee at Pebble Beach," or wherever? I follow golf, but I can't recall the course where the 1992 Open was played. I'd put the book in the "browse at the beach" category.
Rating:
Summary: VERY INFORMATIVE ABOUT GOLFERS AND THE TOUR
Review: Enjoyed the book but felt like he carried it to far with the John Daly chapter. Did not tell what was in all the golfers bag he caddied for like he did Dalys.
Rating:
Summary: Better Than the Back Page of Sports Illustrated
Review: First, a disclaimer. I think Rick Reilly is one of the most creative and entertaining sportswriters out there. I thought it before picking up this book, and my impression has been confirmed. I've read interviews about dozens of "golfers." Reilly's genius is his ability to turn those "golfers" into "people." In these short vignettes, Reilly not only gives you some insight into what makes people like John Daly and David Duval tick, but he does it an entertaining, mapcap manner. There are sometimes when Reilly gets a bit over the top, such as when he uses expression like "eat hot titanium," but I can overlook these exaggerations when they serve to move the stories along. I know that I'll pick this book up time and again for light, fun reading.
Rating:
Summary: Rick Reilly does it again
Review: Great Book. I am a golf nut and really enjoyed all the stories, specially the one with Donald Trump, Donald...you da maaan!!!
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