So help me golf: why we love the game

Book Cover
Average Rating
Publisher
Hachette Books
Publication Date
2022.
Language
English

Description

Beloved bestselling author and golf aficionado Rick Reilly channels his insatiable curiosity, trademark sense of humor, and vast knowledge of the game in a treasure trove of original pieces about what the game has meant to him and to others. This is the book Rick Reilly has been writing in the back of his head since he fell in love with the game of golf at eleven years old. He unpacks and explores all of the wonderful, maddening, heart-melting, heart-breaking, cool, and captivating things about golf that make the game so utterly addictive. We meet the PGA Tour player who robbed banks by night to pay his motel bills, the golf club maker who takes weekly psychedelic trips, and the caddy who kept his loop even after an 11-year prison stint. We learn how a man on his third heart nearly won the U.S. Open, how a Vietnam POW saved his life playing 18 holes a day in his tiny cell, and about the course that's absolutely free. Reilly mines all of the game’s quirky traditions—from the shot of bourbon you take before you tee off at Peyton Manning’s course, to the way the starter at St. Andrews announces to your group (and the hundreds of tourists watching), “You’re on the first tee, gentlemen.” He means that quite literally: St. Andrews has the first tee ever invented. We’ll visit the eighteen most unforgettable holes around the world (Reilly has played them all), including the hole in Indonesia where the biggest hazard is monkeys, the one in the Caribbean that's underwater, and the one in South Africa that requires a shot over a pit of alligators; not to mention Reilly’s attempt to play the most mini-golf holes in one day. Reilly expounds on all the great figures in the game, from Phil Mickelson to Bobby Jones to the simple reason Jack Nicklaus is better than Tiger Woods. He explains why we should stop hating Bryson DeChambeau unless we hate genius, the greatest upset in women’s golf history, and why Ernie Els throws away every ball that makes a birdie. Plus all the Greg Norman stories Reilly has never been able to tell before, and the great fun of being Jim Nantz. Connecting it all will be the story of Reilly’s own personal journey through the game, especially as it connects to his tumultuous relationship with his father, and how the two eventually reconciled through golf. This is Reilly’s valentine to golf, a cornucopia of stories that no golfer will want to be without.**The Sports Librarian’s Best of 2022 – Sports Books**

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ISBN
9780306924934

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The secret of golf: the story of Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus - Posnanski, Joe
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Both are respected sports journalists who write engaging, witty, and authoritative nonfiction about professional sports, as well as humorous, light-hearted fictional stories about athletes. They are most admired for their candid, intimately detailed profiles of professional athletes and their experiences. -- Derek Keyser
Sports fans looking for writing with a strong sense humor and frank opinions should check out the nonfiction of Rick Reilly and Bill Simmons. The strong, compelling personalities of both authors are evident in their witty, in-depth, and candid books on professional sports. -- Derek Keyser
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Published Reviews

Booklist Review

How is it that Reilly--hands down, the funniest golf writer alive--started out hating the game? It's not a funny story. As a child, Reilly knew that when his alcoholic father returned from a day at the links, he'd be hammered and looking for something to hit besides a golf ball. It took years for Reilly to overcome that formidable barrier to the links, but when he did, he was hooked, first as a player and then as a writer: "Writing about golf," he learned, "was really just writing about people who happened to play golf. And that meant there were stories everywhere." We read plenty of those stories and meet a wealth of those people in this delightful recap of a life spent on and around golf courses of every stripe, but it's the raunchiest public courses that Reilly treasures most, especially for the denizens who haunt them, like Two-Down O'Connor, the "World's Most Avid Golf Gambler." Reilly keeps coming back to the people, and who can blame him when their stories mix funny and ironic with inspirational in a perfect blend of sweet and sour? Take Ricky Meissner, a "Tour Rabbit" who spent most of his playing career missing cuts and going broke until he decided to rob a bank whenever he missed a cut. It worked until it didn't.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
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Kirkus Book Review

The acclaimed sports journalist journeys to the heart of a unique sport and pastime. To the uninitiated, golf looks like an undertaking of dubious purpose conducted with tools badly designed for the task. Longtime ESPN and Sports Illustrated writer Reilly, who has spent much of his life playing, watching, and writing about the game, feels only pity for those poor fools. He loves the sport's mix of tension and calmness, its social nature, and the rich history of famous courses. Most of all, he loves golf's democratic nature. Every player has an equal chance, and even royalty can wilt when faced with the little white ball. The game doesn't care who it humiliates, although it can also supply moments of clarity, grace, and beauty. Reilly ably captures all of these elements, mixing in sketches of iconic players and colorful figures. He admits to being obsessive about the minutiae of the game, and the book is punctuated with odd lists and sidebars, including a list of 30 random facts about Jack Nicklaus. This extends into Reilly's collection of weird holes around the world--e.g., one in South Africa that has a pit of alligators or a par 3 in the Dominican Republic "that's 98% water." Throughout, the author interweaves his personal story, noting that golf probably saved him from depression and chronic anxiety. He has little time for people who decry golf as elitist (the vast majority of games are played on public courses) and who describe tennis as better for fitness (it isn't). He also has some snarky things to say about Donald Trump's gaudy courses, arguing that their deliberate artificiality misses the point. Reilly believes that in the past few years, golf has emerged (or, more accurately, reemerged) as a cool game, attracting a new generation of players. Golf might be played initially out of curiosity and thereafter in a futile quest for revenge, but people will probably still be whacking balls down fairways 1,000 years from now. An informative, enjoyable romp. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
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Booklist Reviews

*Starred Review* How is it that Reilly—hands down, the funniest golf writer alive—started out hating the game? It's not a funny story. As a child, Reilly knew that when his alcoholic father returned from a day at the links, he'd be hammered and looking for something to hit besides a golf ball. It took years for Reilly to overcome that formidable barrier to the links, but when he did, he was hooked, first as a player and then as a writer: Writing about golf, he learned, was really just writing about people who happened to play golf. And that meant there were stories everywhere. We read plenty of those stories and meet a wealth of those people in this delightful recap of a life spent on and around golf courses of every stripe, but it's the raunchiest public courses that Reilly treasures most, especially for the denizens who haunt them, like Two-Down O'Connor, the World's Most Avid Golf Gambler. Reilly keeps coming back to the people, and who can blame him when their stories mix funny and ironic with inspirational in a perfect blend of sweet and sour? Take Ricky Meissner, a Tour Rabbit who spent most of his playing career missing cuts and going broke until he decided to rob a bank whenever he missed a cut. It worked until it didn't. Copyright 2022 Booklist Reviews.

Copyright 2022 Booklist Reviews.
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