The Caddie Who Played with Hickory

Don't be fooled into thinking you've got to be a golf aficionado to find John Coyne's The Caddie Who Played with Hickory captivating. Having only ever used an iron to press wrinkles out of a shirt, I have no affection for the sport--but am, instead, a sucker for taut writing in any genre. From page one, the reader is challenged by the youthful, vacillating narrator (reliable?/unreliable?): "I will let you decide if I was wrong...or if I was the only one who fully understood what was happening that summer of 1946." The hints of secrets and showdowns keep one turning the pages, but it is the seamless melding of fact with fiction that is most intriguing. The central story pits a teenage caddie (whose employ matches the history of the author himself) against the great Walter Hagen (a multi-faceted sportsman who cancelled a tryout with the Philadelphia Phillies to pursue golf instead, and later that same week won the U.S. Open) in Hagen's final match with a prized set of hickory clubs. The clubs themselves--hewn from the hills of Tennessee, center-cut from trees growing on a north-facing slope--are a nostalgic character in this novel. ("Finally they ran out of old-growth hickory and then along came steel and the game changed.") That sense of place and of history is what most endeared me to the tale. Though not a golf primer, I certainly felt like I was learning much via my reading about a field to which I had previously been blind. Coyne's ease with idiosyncratic descriptors fit small facts into the text subtly (a caddie lifting his left pants leg so it wouldn't hitch on the backswing), and he introduced the sporting facts at a pace that allowed me to grasp the concepts and follow along, my acquired knowledge steadily gaining speed, so that by the end I felt familiar with the game despite my novice status. This latest of Coyne's is a lovely addition to an already voluminous and acclaimed body of work.

Coyne's done it again. I've read the first of this series and really enjoyed it, so I tried the second. Enjoyed it so much, now waiting for a third -- hopefully. What I know about golf is that I get out there and try with each swing to get the ball closer to the pin. I also know there are so many who are so much better than I am. What the Coyne books do is reveal, sometimes in great detail, just what they're doing that I'm not doing and what they know that I don't know. (Bottom line -- they're playing a different game.) You're not a golfer? Doesn't matter. If you're curious about professionals in any 'game' and what it means to be a professional you'll love this book. All the detail is enthralling and engaging because it all moves the story closer to the finish line. You're in for a great read no matter your interest in golf. I don't know how he does it either, but Coyne manages to use golf as a way to tell a great story of love.

I have never played a round of golf, barely followed the game before Tiger Woods. I even watch a little on TV these days, though I have been known to use the cliche that watching the grass grow was the most exciting part of golf on TV. Coyne's first novel, The Caddie Who Knew Ben Hogan, was recommended to me. I liked it more than I expected. The story drew me in, but most surprising was getting a sense of what golfers are actually doing out there and why it hooks people. All I knew about Ben Hogan was that he was a golf giant from the past. It all came together in a very nice read. I gave the book as a gift to golfer friends, but also to a few nongolfers who I thought would enjoy an entertaining read. Coyne's new book takes on a different golf hero, Walter Hagen, a known but less familiar name to me than Hogan. (Hagen? Hogan? Who's next?) The story is entertaining, the golf and Hagen lore are interesting even to a non-golfer. Best of all, Coyne has set up the tale to end in a dramatic, hole-by-hole final round of golf that gets all the characters on the course, just as he did in the caddie-Hogan book. A very entertaining read even for people like me who will probably never go beyond the bar at a golf club. But I watch golf on TV with different eyes these days.

I've read just about all of everything there is in the golf fiction genera and there is some very entertaining and inspiring novels with some very good story lines in most of them. I await the next one published and usually get it within days of its release. I just finished "The Caddie Who Played with Hickory" and John Coyne has yet another hit on his capable hands. After reading "The Caddie Who Knew Ben Hogan" I was excited to read his next novel as I enjoyed this one so very much! Well, the waiting game is always tough when you know his next "Caddie" novel will probably be even better. And you know what? It was! I just finished his latest golf classic, "The Caddie Who Played with Hickory" and I just wasn't able to put it down. Mixed with accurate history of the game and its players and a great story line about a young man who has a lifetime ahead of him. His experiences with golf and class lines and love and friendship and honor and all the things that shape out lives into what we turn into as adults is believable. It is set in a time that was not so crowded with television and computers and telephones and media pounding our minds to accept a version of the truth that really isn't. We can all let go for awhile and enjoy a good book by Mr. Coyne. I reluctantly finished his book with a tear of happiness from all the nostalgia and the culmination of the characters and how they all managed to live out their lives in a richer way from knowing each other. The golf aspect of this story was well written and will keep even the most avid of golfers entertained and on the edge of their seats. I believe that those of you who do not play this wonderful game will enjoy this excellent story as well because of the human drama of the journey from the innocence of youth to adulthood that develops throughout this enjoyable read. Don't hesitate. Read it, and you will agree that it is indeed a classic in the making.

I have read a number of golfing books (friends don't know what else to buy me for my birthday), and some are pretty lame. I can honestly say I've only truly enjoyed two or three. This is one of them. Coyne weaves a delightful novel of life in the late forties, capturing the very distinctive separation between the wealthy and the working class, while adding mystery (not the murder type) and young love to a story about golf. It keeps you turning pages, and you come away with a good feeling -- even if you know nothing about the game! For those of you who do play, it is even more enticing, bringing Walter Hagan back to the club where he once won the U.S. Open with hickory clubs that he is playing once last time. A delightful read!