Maybe It Should Have Been a Three Iron: My Year as Caddie for the World's 438th Best Golfer

The opening sentences of Donegan's delightful romp through the European golf world sets its tone: "The first thing to understand about caddying is it's not brain surgery. It's more complicated than that," and the next couple of hundred pages prove the point. Put a hapless golf fanatic like Donegan, a journalist by trade, on the bag of another hapless golf fanatic-- British pro Ross Drummond, who would probably be more successful in another line of work--and the results, no matter how hard they try to play it straight, are as wayward as a duck hook off the tee. Funnier than writer Michael Bamberger's trenchant recounting of his exploits carrying Peter Teravainen's bag in To the Linksland, Donegan's chronicle is a self-effacing romp from beginning to end, though some hard-learned lessons manage to creep in along the way: "I was an amateur, crap at it..., just like millions of others. So what? It didn't mean I couldn't have a good time making a fool of myself... What was it A.A. Milne had said about golf? It was the best game in the world to be bad at. Let that be my motto." Of course, it was Milne who also happened to create Eeyore. -- Jeff Silverman