So Help Me Golf: Why We Love the Game

by Rick Reilly

Overview

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**

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306924934
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	05/10/2022
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	132,358
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

A screenwriter and New York Times bestselling author, Rick Reilly wrote for Sports Illustrated and appeared on and wrote for ESPN. In addition to being voted the National Sportswriter of the Year eleven times, he has also been recognized with the Damon Runyon Award for Outstanding Contributions to Journalism. USA Today called him, "the closest thing sports writing ever had to a rock star."
 

Table of Contents

Kid 1

The Bartender's Son 2

King of the Playgrounds 4

Mini Man 6

Dum Dum 10

Miles and Miles and Miles 12

Teen 17

A Time to Prey 18

Xanadu 21

Why Can't I Be Him? 24

Made for Greatness 26

Addict 35

This Will Make Your Back Hurt 36

Golf Nerd Heaven 38

What's This Putter Thing Do? 41

The Great Escape 44

The Jordan Rules 47

Air Ball 50

Writer 53

Rabbit Run 54

The Cheeseburger Ruling 57

What Won't Phil Do? 58

Pagliacci 62

A Hook You Can Count On 66

A Very Full Heart 70

Caddy 75

Spieth to Me 77

Two Dorks 81

The Longest Long Shot 84

Caddies Need Handles 88

Mt. Humiliation 89

The Caddy Killer 91

The Green Mile 94

Member 99

The Red-Shoe Bandit 101

Traditions Like No Others 104

Club Pro Guy 107

The Optometrist 110

Bar Bets 111

A Movable Feast 114

Puddles 117

Intermission:

Stuff I Hate 119

Defender 125

The Six-Foot Golf Course 126

The Heckler 128

Keiser Roll 131

Fast Company 134

Sol Goldberg 139

Wanderer 141

The Unforgettable 18 142

Love-Love Golf 160

Best Worst Course Ever 162

Hackers' Heaven 163

Father 167

My Dad Is Missing 168

Barefoot in the Park 172

The Woman Who Won the Masters 174

Congratulations. I Hate You. 177

"He's Not a Real Person" 181

She's Got This 183

Gambler 189

$100,000 per Foot 190

Let's Get Trashy 196

Icarus 198

The Topper 207

The Day Two Died 209

Fan 213

Max Talent 214

Na Problem 217

A Beautiful Thing 220

Inherently Cool 222

Life in Jupiter 224

Dough Daddy 228

The Man Who Ate Golf 231

Revolver 237

So Much Beauty to Hear 239

President of What? 242

The Egg Man 246

The Payoff 249

Major Gift 253

Grandfather 257

Editorial Reviews

Acclaimed sports journalist [Rick Reilly] journeys to the heart of a unique sport and pastime. 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…. Throughout, the author interweaves his personal story, noting that golf probably saved him… An informative, enjoyable romp.”—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2022-02-15
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.

Kirkus Reviews