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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
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English
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SO HELP ME GOLF

Rick Reilly

Why We Love The Game

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.

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."
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Published 2022-05-10 by Hachette Book Group - New York (USA)

Comments

Reilly has an infectious voice (2.5 funny things per page, I counted) and loves the game of golf beyond all reason. The book is a hodgepodge of short, quirky chapters that cohere as a quasi-narrative because Mr. Reilly structures them around his relationship with his father - which wasn't at all pretty... In his earliest years, the author despised golf by association but gradually, in a sense, found his salvation through the game... For Reilly, golf is many things, but at its best it's a way for people to show and share their love. This book is his thank you.

Catching Up With Rick Reilly and His New Book, 'So Help Me Golf' - Gary Van Sickle and Rick Reilly go back decades and spent some time recently talking about Reilly's new book, his career low score and chasing aces. Read more...

The book was included recently in USA Today's list of 11 drama-filled sports books for summer reading: "American sportswriter and golf aficionado Reilly writes the ultimate love letter to his favorite sport, expounding on its star players (Phil Mickelson, Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus) and quirkiest characters (the PGA Tour player who robbed banks to pay his motel bills). He also gets personal, sharing the story of his tumultuous relationship with his father and how the two reconciled through golf." Read more...

John Swantek hangs with Rick Reilly to discuss some of the stories in his upcoming book, "So Help Me Golf. Why We Love the Game" Read more...

Much of golf journalism is samey and so-so but American sports writer Rick Reilly is the glorious exception to all this... This book is Reilly's heartfelt ode to the game: a bulging collection of sharp and snappy snippets. True tales and personal takes on anything and everything. And while it's all about golf, it's not really. The author likes people even more, so many of the pieces here are really about the things that people do. Some of which will touch you in ways you don't see coming. His usual wit and charm is in abundance, but what actually keeps you turning is just how fascinating, informative and revealing it all is. Read more...

Rick Reilly went on "The Herd with Colin Cowherd" to talk about the topic and SO HELP ME GOLF. Read more...

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. Read more...

Excerpt in Golf Digest is live and in the June print issue timed to the U.S. Open: The most unforgettable holes Rick Reilly has ever played... Read more...

Interview Read more...

chat with Golf.com's "Drop Zone" podcast: Rick Reilly dishes on Phil Mickelson and having drinks out of the Claret Jug with Lefty Read more...

...delightful recap of a life spent on and around golf courses of every stripe.

Rick Reilly wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post about the new, rival, Saudi-backed golf league. Read more...