So Help Me Golf: Why We Love the Game

Description

'fascinating, informative and revealing' Mail on Sunday Beloved bestselling author and golf aficionado Rick Reilly channels his insatiable curiosity, trademark sense of humour, and vast knowledge of the game of golf in 80 original pieces about what it has meant to him and to others, and all the reasons we love it. 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. 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 will admire and unload 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. Reilly will explain 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. 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 alcoholic 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.

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'.

An informative, enjoyable romp. * Kirkus Reviews * [So Help Me Golf] features Reilly's usual hilarious story-telling with a kinder, gentler, more grateful tone. * Sports Illustrated * Former Sports Illustrated and ESPN man Reilly has always had the knack of unearthing great anecdotes that reveal the golfer and of also putting those tales together in fast-paced and funny narratives - So Help Me Golf is a romp that maintains all those trends. * Planet Sport * This book is Reilly's heartfelt ode to the game: a bulging collection of sharp and snappy snippets... His usual wit and charm is in abundance, but what actually keeps you turning is just how fascinating, informative and revealing it all is. * Daily Mail *