Official Caddying Story: Rick Reilly
Rick Reilly is a sportswriter, screenwriter, book author, keynote speaker and inductee into the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame. He was presented into it by legendary quarterback John Elway. He was voted National Sportswriter of the Year 11 times over a career that began in 1979. Published in 2003, his book Who’s Your Caddy? brought unparalleled exposure to one of sport’s most unique vantage points. USA Today called Reilly “the closest thing sportswriting ever had to a rock star.” The Sherman Report called Reilly “easily the most read sportswriter of his generation.” The New York Daily News described him “as one of the funniest humans on the planet.” Publishers Weekly called him “an indescribable amalgam of Dave Barry, Jim Murray, and Lewis Grizzard, with the timing of Jay Leno and the wit of Johnny Carson.” Booklist called him “Hands down, the funniest golf writer alive.” For two years, Reilly was the host of ESPN’s "Homecoming With Rick Reilly," a one-hour interview show that has featured Michael Phelps, Elway and Magic Johnson, among many others. From 1985 until 2007, his breezy, hilarious and yet often emotional style graced the pages of Sports Illustrated. For the last 10 there, he wrote the popular “Life of Reilly” column. It was the first signed weekly opinion column in the magazine’s long history. He is “the Tiger Woods of sports columnists,” Bloomberg News said.
Reilly is founder of the anti-malaria effort Nothing But Nets, which has raised more than $70 million to hang mosquito nets over kids in Africa, where 2,000 children die every day of the disease. It is a partnership with the United Nations Foundation, and every dollar goes to buying the nets. Wrote the Denver Post, “Nothing but Nets is one charity that scores big.”
The following transcript is AI-generated and has undergone only minor edits. Please refer to the video recording for direct quotes.
Kai Sato (00:05.938)
Welcome to the Caddy Shack to Corner Office, where we recognize the most accomplished people who once caddied and grow the game by assisting those following your path. I'm your host, Kai Sato. Today, I'm lucky to be joined by my pal, the illustrious, Rick Riley. Rick, thanks for taking some time. Do I owe you money? Why would you call me illustrious? That's why I never get to actually say illustrious, and I feel as though it's most apropos right now. Thank you. Thank you. This is great. I I actually, you
I didn't, it's weird, my caddy experience, I didn't caddy till I wrote this book, Who's Your Caddy? Which was 2003, I think. And the first bag I ever had was Tommy Aaron at the Masters. So the first time I ever caddied, I'm taking a guy at the Masters and I have no idea what I'm doing. Like I've played a lot, I've taken caddies a lot, but it was just scary as it could be. And then the worst part was, you know, I agreed
I asked Tommy if he'd do it and I said, don't have pay me anything. And he's incredibly cheap. So Tommy says, okay, you know, but Tommy's always mad. And so I remember one time we were on the fifth hole the first day, it's Thursday, and he hits this shot with his five iron and it's not going to get there. It's not going to get there. So I go get up, get up to the ball. And he turns to me and says, keep your mouth off my ball. And I'm like, no, I'm using this wet rag that I got over my shoulder.
Mr. Aaron, and he goes, no, never talk to my ball. And I'm like, okay. And some people don't like you to talk to their balls. But I wanted to say, well, you know, we've had two double bogeys and four holes. Maybe somebody should chat with your ball, kind of give them a good talking to. Well, let's dive right on to the masters because you decided to.
I mean, for me, my first loop was at Bel Air following hot Rod Johnson around and it was Mike Flood senior so I could make all sorts of mistakes and I go out. But you decided to go right into the Super Bowl, the pantheon of greatness. So I mean, you talk about it in the book and showing up and what that's like. But did you have any idea what you were doing? I you'd obviously been around the game, but you know where to stand, where not to obviously dropping towels around. Yeah, but there was so much stuff I didn't learn.
Kai Sato (02:25.263)
And I'm like, first of all, just go into the range at Augusta. He's like, did you get my ball? So we got him some balls. He goes, I don't hit titleist. They have them grouped by the kind of balls that I had go back and get him his Bridgestone or whatever. I didn't know that. And then I remember we're walking down the second hole, know, the masters, the par five. And in our group is is a note of a gay and know to be gay is caddy is Fanny Sundsons.
who won all those majors with Nick Faldo. And Tommy's yelling at me on the second hole, quiet those clubs down, shut those clubs up. Can't you shut those clubs up? Let me guess sir, yes sir, I have no idea what he's talking about. And Fanny comes over and she says, no, you gotta hold your hand under some of the clubs, inside the clubs, and then wrap the towel around them so they don't clink and clatter.
He didn't like the sound of his clubs clattering, which, okay, now I know that. I didn't, I've never heard that before. Backing up just a touch. Everyone, I think if you've ever heard of golf or humor knows who you are and you know, we've read your stuff, seen you on TV, things like that. So I won't, I won't make you go, asking you to explain your background is kind of like when I had to ask Corey Pavin to do it. So I'll try to just avoid that as much as possible. I'll tell you. No, well...
How'd you even get into writing? What was the first thing that you published? Did you always know that this was what you wanted to do? Oh my God, I always wanted to write. And I remember I was in first grade, Boulder, Colorado, and I won a writing contest, some sort of writing elementary school contest. And I remember, because we'd walk home, in those days, first grade, you're walking home from school. And it was in the bank window. And I was so proud to look at it, and I'd go back and forth and look at the...
suddenly put it up in the bank window. And I was telling that story 30 years later. And after I told him, my brother looks at me and goes, you know, dad worked at the bank, right? It wasn't just him extolling how great you are. It was dad, that's where he worked. that makes a lot of sense. And then I had my own newspaper in seventh grade. And then I did win the high school state sports writing contest in...
Kai Sato (04:49.115)
Colorado. And from that, I got a job at the Boulder Daily Camera. I'm a freshman in college and I'm working 40 hours a week. I'm writing columns. I'm covering the Broncos. I'm 19 years old. I mean, we're putting out the paper. All these old grizzled guys make me go drink with them, get home at four, and I got to get up for like an 8 a.m. J-School one class. And they're like, the inverted pyramid style. And I'm like,
I'm not sure I need to go to college, but I stuck with it. all worked out. Writing is just, I mean, the whole reason to go to college if you're a writer is to just learn as much stuff as you can so that your brain is full of interesting stuff that you might need later. But I learned in the first week putting out the bolder daily camera more than I ever learned in J school. You know what I mean? No question. No question. I went to a school where they try to kick you out and go intern and work and loop.
and do all the things that they to do it. that well, USC and that came from the dean of the business school. He's like, you're to learn a lot more outside the walls here. So why don't you go do that stuff? Did he say that? yeah, absolutely. He and he was actually a former caddy who we had on here. He's a LACC member. man. I got so many caddy stories. know, Kai, I'm doing the sequel now to Who's Your Caddy? It's called Still Your Caddy. And and I'm taking so I have this I heard I've heard for like 10 years.
about this thing, Caddy School for Soldiers in St. Andrews, where they take soldiers, American, Canadians, Scottish, UK, whatever, who have PTSD, and they're failing, they've tried to commit suicide, they're really at risk. And these guys are 30, 35 years old, because it takes forever. It doesn't go away. They bring them into this one month school, Caddy School, at St. Andrews, and...
They suddenly are outside. They've got a mission to take their player four and a half hours, try to score the best they can, but let them have a great time. Not gonna let them down like a soldier. They have that sled dog mentality, which any good caddy does. Like, doesn't matter, Ray, we're getting through this. And they have discovered that putting these guys in a big dormitory with each other so they can talk and then getting them outside every day for six, seven hours,
Kai Sato (07:14.55)
really, really helps. And I just got off the phone with a graduate and now he's probably the best caddie at Cabot Cliffs in Canada. He says, caddying saved my life. I tried to kill myself twice. I couldn't be around people. I couldn't be inside. He said he'd go to a restaurant. He'd sit in the corner of the restaurant, check out where his exits were, jump at every noise. He couldn't be inside. But caddie school found him a way to make a living outside.
And then they brought slowly people back into his life. And now he's fine. He's got it. He's got his own foundation to help people with caddying. And so, you people always want to kid about caddies, but it's a hell of a good profession. Give me goosebumps, man. What you don't know is I was a was a jock in college. My best friend was ROTC at USC and is now a lieutenant colonel.
And so I've spent a, yeah, two tours in Afghanistan and now he's Boston Fire. And I've spent a lot of time with Devil Dogs and there are things How did he do? Did he have combat? yeah. He was a intelligence officer. So right when I was drinking and doing whatever I was doing in my 20s, starting the first company, this guy was going out and gathering intelligence in Afghanistan and reporting back to colonels as to where they should go, not go.
When he first came back and went down to San Clemente, we spent our first six straight weekends together. Four down there, two up here, because I was just, you know, wanted to be around him and make sure he was okay. And I did not know you were writing a sequel. I didn't know that was what it's about. I hope to read it, read it quickly. That chapter is very serious, but I'll tell you, I just did, I just caddied the only nude golf course in the world. And it was France. was on the West coast of France and everybody's naked.
for golf, swimming, tennis, you have to be mandatory naked. And so you're, carrying bags, these guys, don't want to be behind there when they're teeing up. Cause they're like 75 years old and there's just stuff that you, you, you can't unsee. But the funny thing, and also where do you put the pencil? Where do you put the teas? The extra ball was just a real problem. But the first day it was nobody at the course.
Kai Sato (09:33.969)
So I talked my wife into playing golf nude, and I would caddy nude. And she goes, no way, no way. I'm not gonna be nude out here in front of strange men. I said, baby, if you're not gonna be nude, then this chapter is not gonna happen, or we might have to give the advance back on the book. She goes, I'm still not doing it. I said, baby, we'll go to Paris and I'll buy you a Gucci purse. She goes, what time do we tee off? And so we did it, and she never played golf, much less nude, but we did it.
All right, I need an advanced copy, but let's go back to the original Who's Your Caddy, right? And how did that book come about? And did you have any idea what it was going to do? And I'll give you a quick personal segue. I was looping right after it came out. 2004 is when I started at Bel Air. And I was not a reader, Rick. Now I'm rather avid and can't live without books, but I was certainly not a reader.
And I mean, I think maybe like the third book I ever read in my life was The Fountainhead in the yard at Bel Air as I was waiting for loops. That's pretty heavy for your third book. needed some density. Yeah, it was like goosebumps and maybe... Because, let's face it, most caddies just read the sprinkler head. But I remember my roommate at the time, guy named Dave Miller, his brother Kyle had read the book and he's like, dude, caddying, that's so cool. I can't believe you're doing this summer. I'm like, whoa, really?
goes into the John pulls out your book and he's like, yeah, I'm just reading about this thing. It talks about John Daly. I didn't know who Bob Newhart was and you know, all of these things. So for me, it was, I think it, it made the profession cool. And you know, people, people like, isn't it degrading? You're in like this white jumpsuit. I'm like, well, what do you, what do you want me to wear? I sweat my ass Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so
And then obviously you have a chapter on there about Bel Air that we'll get into, but at least for me, was, it was, it made it cool. And people are like, wait, you're a caddy. That's really cool. These people you get to meet, like what you get to do. I'm like, trust me, it's not that glamorous. So packing bags. Yeah, I'll tell you exactly what happened. So after the older paper, I went to the Denver post and the LA times by the time I'm 27, I met sports illustrated Dan, Jake and quits and they give me the golf beat. So right away I could see these players aren't giving you shit.
Kai Sato (11:48.453)
You got to go." So I would start talking to the caddies and they were so funny. And they talked to me on the record, off the record. They tell me everything. They trusted me. So I spent more time around the caddies than I did players. And then I thought, God, this is good. Maybe it's an article, 10 pages on me caddying somewhere. And then that went so well, I just decided, no, this is a book. It's bigger than an article. And so much funny stuff happens. So it's such an interesting way.
to look at a player or a person and profile them because like I can't stand next to Patrick Mahomes as he's about to go back. I can't, know, dribble with Steph Curry, but I can stand right next to Scotty Scheffler as he thinks about a shot and I can even advise him on that shot. Where else can you do that? can't do it. I can't think of any other sport where you can do that. And so, so I think my second bag was Donald Trump.
And Donald Trump, we'd known him around sports for years, and he was always coming up to me like a pebble or play a foot boxing matches and stuff. And he'd be like, how come you never write about me? I'm the most interesting guy you're going to write about. I'm like, OK, I'll think of something. So I thought, OK, I'll do this caddy book. So I get there, he picks me up in his limo, we're in New York, and he's like, you're not caddy, and I got no one to play with today, so you're going to play with me. I'm like, OK.
So he starts introducing me around and he's like, this is Rick Riley. He's the managing editor at Sports Illustrated. And I'm like, no, I'm just a writer. Then the next guy, this is Rick Riley. He owns Sports Illustrated. I'm like, no. I said, why are you telling lies about me? He goes, that sounds better. And I remember he called Luigi out from behind the chef. Luigi the chef, big Italian guy with the chef hat. Luigi was voted best cheeseburger chef in the world.
And Luigi's like, it's not true, it's not true. I don't know why you say this. And I remember that day he took seven mulligans, because I wrote everything down. And we're playing a match, straight up score, total score. And he took seven mulligans. And then one time I hit it in close for Birdie. He's off the green, he's laying par. And he goes, I guess that makes this good. And he scooped up the chip. I said, Donald, did you just take a gimme chip in?
Kai Sato (14:13.267)
He goes, well, whatever, you know. So that was new to me. I'd never heard of that before. that led to an entirely another book, right? Commander and Cheat. So yes. Well, just to finish that. Yeah. So so then I did John Daly and Tom Layman and a $50,000 Nassau guy and a blind guy. And it was all always great. Right. Bob Newhart, the comedian. But then I'm retired, living in Italy. And I keep seeing where Trump is saying, I'm the best golfer. You need to vote for me because I'm a winner.
I don't lose. And he goes, I've won at that time. He said, I've won 18 club championships. I'm like, no, you already told me how you win them. He'd forgotten. He told me how he did it, which is he plays, he buys a course, plays the first round by himself and declares himself the club champion. That's how he's just been doing that ever since. of all, how outlandish you, and you go back and read that chapter and you're like, wait a minute.
Fast forward. my God. How many calls after the book came out? This is this is a book called Commander in Chief I did about Trump and just as golf. Nothing about politics. Just how he plays golf, pays for golf, doesn't pay people, builds courses, cheats on the taxes, all this stuff he does. So after the book came out and went straight to number three in the nation and I got all these calls and this county master at
Bedminster calls me, guy named Tim Poole. He says, how did you not know about the green teas? Like, what about the green teas? He goes, I had to buy for him big 500 count bags of green teas. Like so, that's perfectly legal. He goes, no, the caddies had them in their pocket. They would tee them up in the rough. I'm like, my God. And I've heard so many stories about, he's a pretty good player. He can really hit it out of the rough.
now we know. Did you, how did you pick these people? Right? And you had Big John Daly, you Layman. It was such a smattering and interesting collection. How many people said no? Well, I obviously Tiger, you said they turned you down profusely. Tiger always turned me down over and over. And he'd say, I say, why? He said, and he would say, I suck. need good help. Which is pretty good answer.
Kai Sato (16:37.397)
Then OJ Simpson turned me down. Bill Murray turned me down, but he took a year to return my call. And he called me and this is Bill Murray. I'm like, nice, you called me a year later? He's like, yeah, well, what are you doing? I'm writing this caddy book. Can I caddy for you? No. So you gotta help me. You gotta let me caddy for it. It's gonna be so fun. No, you can get anybody, he says. I said, no, OJ Simpson wouldn't even do it. He says, he starts laughing. He says, what time is it?
And I said, I don't know, it's 314. Why? He goes, I want to write down exactly the time today when I laughed the hardest. You couldn't even get OJ Simpson. That's true. I'll tell you though, layman, you, he talked about how you never leave a negative in your player's head. And I took that stuff to heart, man. I started to really study that aspect. Like the approach on eight when there was water and I'd be looping with guys. They're like, Hey, just don't, just don't miss it left. And I was like,
Whoa, whoa, no. And so there were all those little tidbits and it applies to many facets of your life, right? Of just making. Exactly. Yeah, that's exactly right. People always say be positive, but there's no place more important to be positive than caddying. And I had never heard that till he said it, which is whatever you're going to say to me, put it in the positive. Like one time on, he said, I caddied him at Disney. We almost won. We were seventh, I think. But I said, I said,
Don't leave it short. And he came later and said, no, you don't say don't leave it short. You say, there's nothing downhill, man. This putt is nice and uphill. You can hit this hard. Something positive like that. And one time I said, don't go left. There's a big lake over there. As though he didn't know that. And he said, no, what you say is there's tons of room right. And you see these guys that live like this and you're so right. Like a guy will get, I got this buddy, he's like a.
He just can't be, he's never down. And he got fired one year and I said, oh man, you got fired. He goes, no, no, this is great. I'm between opportunities. I'm gonna travel and I'll have something, and you know, it's just, that's how he is. And he's always flans on his feet. And I think it's cause he's very positive. And it's a good point, especially there are certain guys, jocks out there. gotta stay positive, right? And there's so many things you can get down about, but.
Kai Sato (18:58.367)
I just had an incredible category last week and I got to play in New York and former guy chasing for six years on the mini tours and former D one player played in the, you us am but he was so good at the empathy piece of understanding that all right, I'm not going to play at your level. And how do I help this guy have a great day and get around and told him at the end of the round. And so there's an EQ piece that cool. Yeah, that's play.
And that is, I think they have more billionaires there than any place in. It looked like it. I mean, it's pretty, it's pretty crazy. We got to play garden city men's as well. And it's wild. That's really good. It was, it's like 88 degrees, 90 % humidity and you're wearing a sport coat. So that, that, that piece of it is pretty unique. Yeah. It's you have to wear a sport coat in the locker room or on the patio where you're eating. So just, just part of the lore. That's what you do. What a
So what happened to you in golf after this book comes out? Right. mean, and I, uh, this book put caddying on the map in a different light. What were, were you guys coming out of the woodwork? mean, what happened? Well, right. For one thing, every time I took a caddy after that, every caddy seemed to know the book. And for years, they, a lot of would have it ready for me to sign because I don't think anyone had ever really written.
about how fun and interesting and important Caddian is. You made it relevant. Because so many times you see it on tour where like, for instance, Adam Scott wins the Masters. He has no idea what the putt does in the playoff. And his caddy there is Stevie Williams. And Adam says, I think it's right edge. And Stevie says, Adam, it's not. It's a ball and a half. It breaks more than you know. Tiger and I've had this putt a million times.
trust me on this. He trusted him, poured it in the middle, played it a ball and a half out. And Adam Scott says, Stevie Williams won me the Masters. And so it happens all the time, Ali. I love when Jordan Spieth and Michael are kidding after each other on TV. And Jordan's just so hyper. And Michael's former sixth grade teacher, you know? And so he's trying to explain to him in a nice, delicate, positive way, yeah, we could aim for that bunker. But if we're short,
Kai Sato (21:21.354)
We're going to make double. So why don't we lay up? You're so great with your wedges. You'll stuff it in there three feet and make it. No, I can do this. I can do this. it's almost like having a child sometimes. No question. And we'll just look what happened to the Masters this year. Harry Diamond had to reset with Rory and said, hey, we would have taken this on Thursday. Right. Exactly. And and that it's it's just that change. And Rory brought that up. He said that really changed because let's face it, he had three putts.
If he makes any of them, he wins. The easy one on 16, the one on 18, I think there was one more, maybe 15. If he makes any of those, he wins by one right away. But then to miss the one at 18 was not a hard putt. And he looked so down, he looked like someone just shot his dog, didn't he? He just looked kind of white and pale. And he said, Harry, reset me. He said, hey, if I'm on Thursday morning, we just said, you'll be in a playoff.
You'd have taken it. And that was such great, that's a great thing to say. touched on the Pro Jocks, the Turing caddies. And they always have the best stories, we all know this. They oftentimes can't share them, otherwise they will get fired, right? That's the hard part. And when you get to spend times with some of these guys, and you you're at Whisperock, a bunch of those guys play there, Grindr, Joe Scobbs, all those guys. Yeah, exactly. So, how did you...
build that rapport, build those relationships, get those stories, but make sure that you didn't violate anything. mean, years and years, but they are, especially if someone had a great bag. Like Joe had a million stories, but he wouldn't let you use any of them. Bones was very careful, when he'd go off the record, he had a million stories. Bones finally came out with one of his stories that we knew, which was that every time you won a major,
Bones didn't get the flag, which is a caddy tradition in America. The winning caddy of any tournament goes and gets the flag. But for Bones, especially majors, and Phil wouldn't let him do it. He gave it to his grandfather. I mean, he had six majors and that's just not the tradition. The tradition, that's the caddy's property. And Bones was pissed about that.
Kai Sato (23:46.176)
And finally, when they broke up, he finally told it. But I knew that story for a long time. You know, the thing about writing, if you say, look, try something out on me, float us, float a rumor, say whatever you want. Maybe it's not true. If you say it's off the record, I'll never use it. And so they would try it and I wouldn't use it. And then they learn to trust you that way. Got it. How is that? How much has that profession changed in the time that you had covered it? Seen it? Obviously, the money is insane now.
Well, mean, God, I think it all changed when the Masters allowed players to start taking their own caddies to the Masters and we got to meet all these guys. Well, I mean, I'd known them, but the world got to meet these guys. can you, I mean, it's kind of weird, right, Kyle? Because you would never say, hey, let's take a LA North caddy and take him to Riviera. But caddies are, they should. If they trust a caddy's judgment and they love the way he carries and talks to them,
and he loves when he supports them, occasional veto, that's fine, then you should take him everywhere because there's an art to reading greens. And you learn greens in a couple of days. So that became a thing where, my gosh, I mean, you can just make all kinds of money doing that. The thing, Stevie never liked his deal because Stevie was under a flak rate.
And I think that's one of the reasons he quit because he wanted to be part of the action with wins and taking big, big cash. And instead he was kind of, but you know, Tiger's very cheap. He's always been the cheapest guy in town. We're going to run out of time and I want to be respectful because I know we got a short window. But can you talk about maybe the biggest thing that you learned? You decided to loop, you looped at the Masters, you looped for all these people, you're around it, you've had caddies.
What do people not understand about what's going on or what did you most take away from your caddying experiences? mean, I didn't realize what a team it is. It's such a team, except for gamblers. That guy that was playing $50,000 Nassau's with eight different guys. Dewey, Dewey Tomko, he's a poker guy. He said, look, you can come with me the whole week if you want, but you can't caddy. I don't want to hear you say good shot, bad shot.
Kai Sato (26:11.981)
And then I'm like, Dewey, I can really caddy now. He goes, I know you can, maybe you can, but I don't want to have someone to blame. I thought that was so interesting. Tour guys, occasionally they call it hit and whip, right? You hit a bad shot and somehow you're blaming the caddy. You see that now and again. I'd say most players are pretty good about accepting responsibility. But like that four days with layman in Disney where we had a chance, man, we really worked it, except I kept screwing it up.
I remember on the Sunday, I was so nervous. And I got to this ball and it was 151. I paced it off 14 yards. I said, okay, Tommy, 151. And I paced it off 14. That's 137. He goes, no, Rick, you went backwards. It's 151 plus 14 or 13, whatever it is. Oh, I'm so sorry. And I did it again later in the day. They're gonna be like, oh, okay, so it's 211 minus.
I didn't know. No, it's plus again. You missed it. Okay. And then the third time I remember, I got it perfect. I was off like as soon as we were playing with Bernhard Langer, I was off like a shot, you know. I was out there early, got the exact yardage. I got it. I knew this time we went forward. So I subtracted, you know, from what the sheet and I knew exactly what it was. And I said, you know, it's 172 minus 10. I went forward. So that's 162. And Lehmann goes, yeah, but that's Bernhard Langer's ball.
I guess I didn't learn that much guys. All right. Well, we only had a half hour today. I just want to thank you for taking the time. Let you let you run someday when the book comes out. We'll have to circle back. Well, let's do it. And if before I let you up, is there anyone we need to go track down? Anyone who you say, hey, you guys got to go talk to this guy. He's got great stories or he was an incredible cat. Anyone just come to mind?
No worries. You've got to talk to some of these caddy soldiers. Okay. They have stories. my God. I mean the things they've been through and it's kind of, it's kind of scary. Not scary, but it's, it's a delicate because they'll go so far telling you what it was like when they came back, telling you the things that, you know, broad strokes, what they saw my best friend, you know, died in a helicopter. This guy got shot right next to me. But when they, but they,
Kai Sato (28:37.869)
They won't tell you the really bad stuff. But the idea that they're on death's door, and know, 22 soldiers a day, per day in America commit suicide. The idea that the game of golf, and more specifically, caddying, helping somebody, can save your life. Because, you know, I used to have this guy, he'd say, you it's not...
He said, everyone thinks it's like me, me, me, my life. What you remember at the end, he was an old guy. He says, well, you really remember is what role you played in other people's lives. And that's kind of what a caddy is, right? You don't get the trophy. Sometimes you don't even get the flag, but you were a huge part of someone else's day, their trip to Pebble Beach, their trip to St. Andrews, their tournament, their year, their major, whatever.
So it's just, I love that part about it. the fact that you can really make a difference and be a friend when pressure is tight, you know? so that's what I think. That's why I really love writing about caddies because they're really just kind of selfless that way. Still your caddy. I didn't know it was coming out. Can't wait to revisit this when it does. And by all means, we would love to talk to some of these soldiers and hear more about it.
I got a million, this book's gonna be good, I think, in a kind of a different way. And so there'll be a million stories. I think it's gonna be great. I'm excited for it. I appreciate you, brother. Thanks for your time. Appreciate it.
