The Life of O’Reilly

John O’Reilly is an inductee of the Caddie Hall of Fame, an erstwhile caddie to Peter Townsend, Des Smyth and Padraig Harrington and someone whom Seve referred to as ‘The Legend’. As you would expect from this gregarious and lovable rogue the book is strewn with amusing stories and anecdotes from his introduction to smoking by P.J. Carroll, albeit unintentional, to the watering hole in Doha to his raid on the members bar in the R&A. The early years provide a social history of golf in fifties and, what follows, is an insight into the players, professional and amateur, and caddies that he rubbed shoulders with during his fifty years as a caddy, twenty-five of which were on the European Tour. Johnny looped mainly for the aforementioned players but also jobbed for Doug Sanders, Gay Brewer, Fuzzy Zoeller, Dave Marr, Nathaniel Crosby, Roland Stafford and Walton, to name but a few. I would imagine that Ivan’s discretionary and filtering skills, as he transformed the tapes to manuscript, were sorely tested and no doubt had to leave out as much as he put in but nonetheless it is a truly great read for the golf enthusiast.