The Green Road Home

I just finished reading The Green Road Home: Adventures and Misadventures as a Caddie on the PGA Tour by Michael Bamberger. Today, Bamberger is a senior writer for Sports Illustrated, but in 1985, at the age of 24, he had left a budding journalism career to experience the vagabond life of a PGA Tour caddie. Bamberger is probably best known for being the reporter who questioned a drop Michelle Wie took in the third round of the 2005 Samsung World Championship--her first tournament as a professional--which led to her disqualification. He is also the creator of the e-club, which looked like a small fairway wood head mounted on a putter for use in chipping around the greens. But in The Green Road Home, Bamberger gives an interesting view of Tour life from the often anonymous men who tote those large staff weeks week after week.

With his savings of $5,000, Bamberger, who also served as golf writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer from 1986-1995, gave himself six months to try to make it as a Tour caddie. He began his caddie career by writing to three golfers asking if he could caddie for them. One of them, Randy Erskine, responded and Bamberger's adventure began. Over the next six months he caddied for Brad Faxon, Al Geiberger, George Archer, Steve Elkington (in the Dutch Open, the Aussie's first tournament as a professional), along with lesser known players such as Billy Britton, Larry Rentz and Jamie Howell. In 1985, only the star players had regular caddies. Many players often switched from tournament to tournament.

Bamberger takes us through the long drives between tour stops, the cheap hotels and fast food, as well as the anxiety of arriving at a tournament with a guaranteed "bag" for the week. On a few occasions, Bamberger did what other caddies did when they didn't have a "bag"--he worked as a spotter for CBS' broadcast or drove a shuttle van at The Memorial Tournament.

Although a short read, it was very enjoyable as Bamberger shines the spotlight on the colorful characters who we often only see carrying the bag down the fairway or walking across the green to tend the flag on our televisions. I highly recommend this book as a short summer read.