This is a collection of 100 columns from "The Life of Reilly," first
published in Sports Illustrated over the last seven years. This is the
essence of the columns, "I don't write about sports. I write about people who happen to be in sports.
I write about human joy, sorrow, religion and politics as it weaves itself
through sports."
This is a sequel to my previous novel, "Missing Links." We
have the same cast of bizarre characters from Ponkaquogue Municipal Golf
Links and Deli, also known as Ponky. Did you ever see the movie "Love,
Actually"? I like to think of this book as "Golf, Actually." It
has nine different plots which wind up merging in the end, for better
or worse. The story revolves around a plan by the neighboring upscale
Mayflower Club to buy Ponky and use it as a parking lot. The Ponky regulars
put together a plan to save their beloved goat track. Tolstoy wishes
he'd thought of it.
This book is organized around Reilly's seven Rs: Rants, Raves, Reality,
Roots, Rough, Wrecks, and Royalty. There are features and columns on
sports greats, rants against high-profile atheletic programs, tales of
golfing glory in and out of the spotlight -- including a round with standing
president Bill Clinton -- plus reflections on the true meaning of sacrifice,
and personal stories about the Reilly family's trials and tribulations.
Who knows golfers best? Who's with them every minute of every round,
hears their muttering, knows whether they cheat? Their caddies, of course.
So sportswriter Rick Reilly figured that he could learn a lot about the
players and their games by caddying. He caddied for some of the best
golfers in the world -- Jack Nicklaus, David Duval, Tom Lehman, John
Daly, Casey Martin, and Jill McGill -- as well as Deepak Chopra, Donald
Trump, a high-rolling golf hustler in Las Vegas, and a blind golfer.
Reilly's wicked wit and an expert's eye provide readers with the next
best thing to a great round of golf.
Missing LInks is the novel that has become a kind of cult classic among
golfers, still selling strong after 11 years. We get movie offers on
it all the time, but nothing has quite caught fire. It's the story of
four middle-class buddies who live outside Boston and for years have
been 1) utterly obsessed with golf and 2) a regular foursome at Ponkaquogue
Municipal Course and Deli, the single worst golf course in America. These
are guys that take the bus with their clubs on their back. A long overdue
tribute to dog-meat public courses and the incurables who play them.
Growing up in a bizarre cave-dwelling cult in Colorado, seven-foot,
eight-inch Maurice "Slo-Mo" Finsternick knows nothing about
the NBA--that is until the day he's discovered and becomes the hottest
sports icon in the country. Eventually, though, Slo-Mo begins to move
away from his kind, truthful, polite, and self-effacing ways and gradually
learns to behave like a famous athlete. Can the big man's innocence survive
the charms of the big show?
