Here is a collection of Rick’s books. You can purchase them on Amazon or Barnes & Noble by clicking on the links below the description.
So Help Me Golf
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.
Booklist called it “funny, ironic and inspirational, in a perfect blend of sweet and sour.”
Commander in Cheat
An uproarious indictment of Donald Trump’s lying, cheating, and poor sportsmanship–by the bestselling author and acclaimed sportswriter.
Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump is an on-the-ground and behind-the-scenes look at Trump’s ethics deficit on and off the course. Reilly will transport readers onto the golf course with President Trump, revealing the absurd ways in which he lies about his feats and what they can tell us about the way he leads off the course in the most important job in the world.
Reilly has been with Trump on the fairway, the green, and in the weeds, and has seen first-hand how the president plays–and it’s not pretty. Based on his personal experiences, and interviews with dozens of golf pros, amateurs, developers, partners, opponents, and even caddies who have first-hand experience with Trump on the course, Reilly takes a deep and often hilarious look at how Trump shamelessly cheats at golf, lies about it, sues over it, bullies with it, and profits off it.
From Trump’s ridiculous claim to have won eighteen club championships, to his devious cheating tricks, to his tainted reputation as a golf course tycoon, Commander in Cheat tells you everything you need to know about the man.
Tiger, Meet My Sister … And Other Things I Probably Shouldn’t Have Said
Rick Reilly’s latest book is like eating potato chips. Once you get started, it’s hard to stop. Tiger, Meet My Sister … And Other Things I Probably Shouldn’t Have Said (Penguin), due out May 13, 2014, is a collection of his best columns written at ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine between 2008 and 2013. It is complete with postscript updates of each column.
It is a potpourri of all kinds of Reilly columns: the tear jerkers, the sentimental, the angry, the funny and the controversial. They cover everything from Lance Armstrong and his lies to Tiger Woods and his temper. They’re about everything from a stud high school QB who eats lunch every day with the bullied Down’s Syndrome girl to the blind Yankees fan who commutes two hours each way to every game.
These columns are something you don’t see often these days in sportswriting — short, lovingly polished, beautifully fashioned features and opinions that add up to something. You might not like that something, or you might love it, but you’re guaranteed to read it.
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Sports From Hell
The most popular sports columnist in America puts his life (and dignity) on the line in search of the most absurd sporting event on the planet. What is the stupidest sport in the world? Not content to pontificate from the sidelines, Rick Reilly set out on a global journey—with stops in Australia, New Zealand, Finland, Denmark, England, and even a maximum security prison at Angola, Louisiana—to discover the answer to this question nobody else really saw the need to ask. From the brain-and-body-taxing sport of Chess Boxing, to the mind war that is the Rock-Paper-Scissors Championship, to the underground world of illegal Jart Throwing, to way too much nudity, Reilly—in his valiant quest—subjected himself to both bodily danger and abject humiliation (or, in the case of Ferret Legging, both).
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Hate Mail from Cheerleaders and Other Adventures from the Life of Reilly
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.”
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Shanks for Nothing (novel)
This is a sequel to Reilly’s previous novel, “Missing Links.” It features 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”? Think of this 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.
“The most entertaining golf novel not written by Dan Jenkins. This is a must read for any fan of golf—or of good humor.”—Star Telegram
“showcases the underrate eloquence of male banter….fast-paced, hilarious (and often raunchy) hijinks…Reilly can add another stroke of genius to his scorecard” —Rocky Mountain News
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The Life of Reilly: The Best of Sports Illustrated’s Rick Reilly
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 athletic 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.
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Who’s Your Caddy?: Looping for the Great, Near Great, and Reprobates of Golf
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.
“Reilly could write about lawn bowling and make it funny, informative, and entertaining. You never know what the next page is going to bring.” —Los Angeles Times
“Good, wacky fun—and the primo Father’s Day gift of the year” —Fortune
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Missing Links (novel)
Missing Links is the novel that has become a kind of cult classic among golfers, still selling strong after 11 years. 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.
“You don’t need to know your bogeys from your birdies to find at least three laughs per page in this novel.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Part Damon Runyon, part Raymond Chandler, and part Caddyshack…I was hooked for the full 18.” —Entertainment Weekly
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Slo Mo! (novel)
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?
“A splendid comic device whose literal telling of his NBA career says more about pro sports than he could ever know.”—Chicago Tribune
“[An] inspired satire, a laugh-a-minute, sometimes bawdy, over-the-top riff on everyone and everything associated with professional basketball. If you don’t find something to laugh at with Slo-Mo!, run out, don’t walk, and find a sense of humor.” —Denver Post
