Caddy for Life

A testimonial to the goodness and courage of those men and women whose human concerns surpass the game of professional golf is read with admirable sensitivity and control by the author. This account of the long partnership/friendship of pro golfer Tom Watson and caddy extraordinaire Bruce Edwards, who was fatally stricken with ALS ("Lou Gehrig's disease"), holds your attention as it quietly breaks your heart. If you've never quite understood the allure of a sometimes irrational sport, this inspiring saga of grace under pressure--on and off the course--is also a basic instructional about why this game seduces and retains its many admirers and devotees. L.C. 2005 audie Awards Finalist (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine

April 5, 2004
Sportswriter Feinstein (Open
; The Majors
) delivers another solid look at the world of golf and its many interesting personalities, and this newest is his most intimate work so far. His subject is Bruce Edwards, who has been known within golf's tight-knit world as the caddy for over 40 years for legendary pro Tom Watson. Edwards's life story is a microcosm of the changes in modern professional golfing, and this book will thoroughly entertain golf fans. The personal edge in Feinstein's writing comes from the fact—acknowledged immediately in the book's introduction—that Edwards was diagnosed in 2003 with ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease, and that he found this out only 15 days after proposing to the longtime love of his life. Fortunately, Feinstein is skilled at looking at Edwards's professional and personal challenges without becoming mawkish and delivers a solid testament to a life well led. Feinstein nicely captures how Edwards, by caddying for Watson, "became the public face of those changes"—from Edwards's teenage years, working only at individual clubs for small change with a range of golfers competing for purses that were one-thirtieth of what they are now, to today, when a caddy can make an annual income well into six figures working for a successful player. The book, in effect, also offers a fine bio of Watson, as Feinstein recounts in energetic detail the many important tournaments that Watson won with Edwards's assistance. Agent, Esther Newberg.
(Apr.)

Correction:
Due to an editing error, our review of Samuel Huntington's Who Are We?
(Forecasts, Mar. 15) misattributed to the author the belief that "mixing of races and hence culture is the road to national degeneration." Mr. Huntington does not hold this view, and PW
apologizes for the error.