Rating: 
Summary: A light, fun read for any serious or casual golf fan
Review: I found this to be an enjoyable book. Like many others, I probably wouldn't have read it without Rich Beem winning a major championship this year and beating Tiger Woods in a truly great, clutch performance. If you're a golf fan at any level or just a sports fan, I think you'll find this book worth reading. It's not an award winning type effort, but the characters are interesting, as is the story.I think what keeps this from being a 5-star book is that, in my opinion, the author did a journeymanlike job on it, but not an exceptional job. I think he committed too much space to the caddy and not quite enough on the player. The caddy's story is pretty simple - Steve does an outstanding job when he's into it, but he's such a disorganized screwup that he can't be counted on to show up, much less perform at a high level. I didn't see him as a typical caddy, or worth as much space as the author gave him. Rich, the pro, carried the book by being interesting. He also has issues with not being professional, but he's such an interesting and likeable guy I enjoyed reading about him. The author could have probably improved the book by adding to Rich's space and subtracting from Steve's space. So, to sum it up, I think you'll like it if you have any interest in the subject matter, but don't expect a great book.
Rating:
Summary: Don't judge a book by its cover!
Review: I have the feeling that the author of this book wasn't entirely thrilled by the artwork used on the this book's cover. The artwork suggests that the book is chock full of racy details about the lives of PGA professional golfers and their caddies. This book is not. If that is what you are looking for, don't buy it. However, if you are looking for a fascinating look inside one summer's events following a rookie on the PGA Tour and his eccentric caddy, then you will love this book. I couldn't put it down. You don't have to be a golfer or even a great golf fan to find yourself captivated by this story. I'll never watch golf the same way again. I learned some incredible details about the business of golf that floored me. I had no idea so much money was circulating out there and that so many people were just looking for the hottest new player to throw it at. For a book that advertises itself as a look at the wild side of the PGA Tour, I was disappointed that there weren't more of the frat party type stories in the book. I'm fairly certain they occured and either the author wasn't privey to such information, or he chose not to include it. More of that would had made this book more "Ball Fouresque" and would have earned the fifth star from me.
Rating: 
Summary: Shipnuck Rules
Review: I read Alan Shipnuck's columns religiously on cnnsi.com. If you're a golfer and you don't know this guy's stuff, you're missing out on what is week-in, week-out THE most irreverant and clued-in set of insights into golf. So based on the strength of his weekly work, I bought "Bud, Sweat, and Tees." Besides the odd title (which I'll bet was foisted upon an unwilling author), this is really a great book. It's about one bi-coastal plane trip in length, and it's a perfect way to pass the time. Shipnuck really struck gold with Beem and Duplantis. I imagined him trying to write a book like this about some of your run-of-the-mill, blow-dried tour pro. It just wouldn't work. You'd get 15 - 20 pages of material at best. Yes, both of these guys are squandering what looked to be pretty bright futures, but as Mark O'Meara tells a despondent Breem late in the book (paraphrased) "Rich, you've already done something that most golfers only dream about." As for Steve Duplantis, you've got to read the book to even begin to believe this guy's life. I won't attempt to do it justice here. Man, talk about red meat to an author. Two odd editing mistakes in the book were unsettling to me, though. First, on page 100 there is talk about Beem's spin around the course of Waialea for the Hawaiian Open. In all other places in the book, it's (correctly) Waialae. The Hawaiian alphabet being what it is, this is more than a letter transposition: these are two actual places (and courses). The second error is more egregious. On page 217-218, in the middle of a gripping, shot-by-shot recounting of Breem's charge at the 1999 Texas Open, Shipnuck describes a "momentum-halting bogey" and notes that "Breem was now -16, in fourteenth place..." I must have read that line ten times, trying to figure out what I had missed, given that Breem was in 2nd before dropping the shot. Of course, it's a misprint and it should say Breem had dropped to *fourth* place. I'll call that a momentum-halting editing mistake. One inside joke that Shipnuck drops on his regular readers really had me chuckling: while covering the Pebble Beach Pro Am, he mentions the nearby town of Salinas, CA " the dusty farming town that birthed John Steinbeck, among other writers." Yeah, like Alan Shipnuck.
Rating: 
Summary: error filled
Review: I was one of the people interviewed for this book and am quoted several times throughout. It's a slip shod effort by Shipnuck that is filled with factual errors, misspelled words and names and typos. The author is desparately trying to be funny and along the way he stretches the truth. Beem's win at the 1999 Kemper Open and how he got there is a great story. Unfortunately, Shipnuck shouldn't have been the one to tell it.
Rating:
Summary: Very entertaining
Review: I wish I could be a caddie. Read this and you'll understand why.
Rating:
Summary: Dead Solid Perfect, in Real Life
Review: If this story had been a successful novel, the sequel might be about Rich Beem holding off Tiger Woods to win the 2002 PGA. Ironically, that scenario, one a novelist would have to stretch to create, provide the catalyst that's got everyone buing this book. Be glad it happened and join the crowd! The true story of Beem and Caddie Steve Duplantis is better than any sports novel I've ever read. I particularly enjoyed the 36 page chapter in the middle of the book describing Beem's rookie win in the '99 Kemper Open and the role Duplantis played on the final day. Shipnuck makes you feel the same butteflies and tension Rich must have felt, Pepto Bismol or no. Both pro and caddie are immature, insecure and more compulsive than dedicated. When you hear about the influence Beem's father had on him then hear his Dad whine about the ingratitude and shortcomings of his son, you will certainly understand some of the baggage Rich carries and respect his accomplishments if not the road he took to get there. It's not surprising that John Daly befriended Beem in his rookie year and will be interesting to see how similar or different their careers turn out to be.
Rating:
Summary: Dead Solid Perfect, in Real Life
Review: If this story had been a successful novel, the sequel might be about Rich Beem holding off Tiger Woods to win the 2002 PGA. Ironically, that scenario, one a novelist would have to stretch to create, provide the catalyst that's got everyone buing this book. Be glad it happened and join the crowd! The true story of Beem and Caddie Steve Duplantis is better than any sports novel I've ever read. I particularly enjoyed the 36 page chapter in the middle of the book describing Beem's rookie win in the '99 Kemper Open and the role Duplantis played on the final day. Shipnuck makes you feel the same butteflies and tension Rich must have felt, Pepto Bismol or no. Both pro and caddie are immature, insecure and more compulsive than dedicated. When you hear about the influence Beem's father had on him then hear his Dad whine about the ingratitude and shortcomings of his son, you will certainly understand some of the baggage Rich carries and respect his accomplishments if not the road he took to get there. It's not surprising that John Daly befriended Beem in his rookie year and will be interesting to see how similar or different their careers turn out to be.
Rating:
Summary: Bud, Beem and Duplantis
Review: If you are a golfer then you need to read this book. I follow Alan Shipnuck's column on cnnsi.com weekly and it is fabulous. The book he has written chronicles one of the most intimate relationships on and off the golf course: that of player and caddy. Shipnuck provides the reader with an all access view to life on the tour from both the player and caddy point of view. Just a page turner from start to finish.
Rating:
Summary: The Best...Simply, the Best
Review: If you follow the game of professional golf, this is the best book ever writtten about The PGA Tour. John Winestein wishes he had written this book. It chronicles what it is like as a bottom feeder in experience, as well as how that all gets changed around through "blood, sweat and tears." The two principals of the book, Rich Beem, aspiring PGA Pro and Steve Duplantis, his caddie are real people with real problems and real answers,... sometimes. Beem has burst even further onto the PGA scene since this was written by winning The International and the PGA Championship in back to back outings in 2002. That will no doubt be the subject of another book, but it cannot surpass the brutal honesty and interest of this first effort. You must not pass this by, if golf is a part of your life.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, but how did he write this?
Review: It's not every author who could look at a couple of guys like Beem and Duplantis and say to themselves: "Gee, I could write a book about these guys!" After all, they don't seem that fascinating on the surface. But Spipnuck saw the potential and made it work. Really a good read. The whole time reading the book however, I found myself wondering exactly how Shipnuck wrote the book. In other words, what was the nature of his involvement with these guys and when did it start? It certainly appears that he spent a ton of time in their actual presence and was relating the story as it happened. He certainly was in their presence sometimes--for example, right at the start of the book, 8 days after the Kemper--Beem met up with Shipnuck. However, given that Beem and Duplantis were often apart, it cannot be the case that he was always in their company. Was it instead based primarily on interviews with the two over the phone? Would they speak every night? (It certainly seemed like it given that he has almost daily quotes from the two about major matters and mundane matters alike). I also could not ascertain when the author picked up with his narrative. Was it at the start of 1999, meaning that he just happened to get incredibly lucky when his obscure guy won the Kemper. Or did the idea come to him only after Beem won the Kemper, and if so, how is it that he has such meticulous detail as to the lives of Beem and Duplantis up to that point? To take just one tiny example of that--in early 1999, Shipnuck is coveing Beem at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am. On the 7th hole, Beem hits a 6-iron and Shipnuck quotes him as saying "A good 6-iron." Well, obviously, Beem would not have said that to Shipnuck 5 or 6 months later, so we have to assume that it was more or less contemporaneous, as nearly all the quotes seem to be. If so, that would mean that the author was in full coverage mode throughout 1999 and, by incredible coincidence, happended to luck out when his man won the Kemper. Anyway, I was just wondering about all this. Lastly, I thought the title was stupid and not worthy of such a good book.
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