An American Caddie in St. Andrews
Growing Up, Girls, and Looping on the Old Course
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4.6 • 341 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A hilarious and poignant memoir of a Harvard student who comes of age as a caddie on St. Andrews’s fabled Old Course.
In the middle of Oliver Horovitz’s high school graduation ceremony, his cell phone rang: It was Harvard. He’d been accepted, but he couldn’t start for another year.
A caddie since he was twelve and a golfer sporting a 1.8 handicap, Ollie decides to spend his gap year in St. Andrews, Scotland—a town with the U.K.’s highest number of pubs per capita, and home to the Old Course, golf ’s most famous eighteen holes—where he enrolls in the St. Andrews Links Trust caddie trainee program. Initially, the notoriously brusque veteran caddies treat Ollie like a bug. But after a year of waking up at 4:30 A.M. every morning and looping two rounds a day, Ollie earns their grudging respect— only to have to pack up and leave for Harvard.
There, Ollie’s new classmates are the sons of Albania’s UN ambassador, the owner of Heineken, and the CEO of Goldman Sachs. Surrounded by sixth generation legacies, he feels like a fish out of water all over again and can’t wait to get back to St. Andrews. Even after graduation, when his college friends rush to Wall Street, Horovitz continues to return each summer to caddie on the Old Course.
A hilarious, irresistible, behind-the-scenes peek at the world’s most celebrated golf course—and its equally famous caddie shack—An American Caddie in St. Andrews is certain to not only entertain golfers and fans of St. Andrews but also anyone who dares to remember stumbling into adulthood and finding one’s place in the world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Horovitz, a wunderkind of sorts, chronicles his glorious times as a caddie trainee at the Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland, a prestigious golf landmark. With the energy and joy of youth, he describes his "gap year," when he took time off before entering Harvard, to which he was accepted at age 17. During that year, he joined the caddie squad at the historic site, with its challenging fairways. A caddie since age 12, Horovitz enjoys the competition of the caddies, the oft-repeated golf tales, the stern discipline of his by-the-book caddie master in the shack, and the pressure to excel at his duties of looping on the links. His interaction with the group of "pretty" university girls, deemed "Model Caddies," is wondrous, as he learns several life lessons from them and the other caddies buzzing around them. Taking a full course load at Harvard while juggling caddie summers at St. Andrews, Horovitz shares his deeply felt memories of golf, girls, and the academy boldly, never taking himself too seriously or being irreverent about the caddie tradition on the time-honored Old Course links.
Customer Reviews
Loved it!
Even better then I expected and hoped it would be. A funny and heartwarming story of passionately working at the home of golf.
orosman
started reading it on my flight back from St Andrews where i go twice a year and have been for past 10 years.Great book and one where i have met a lot of the characters and have some of them caddy for me.A must read!!!
Great book
Even if you're not a fan of golf this book is a must read. Ollie covers his life as a caddy from the time he's 18. Going to St. Andrews should be on everyone's bucket list and this book makes the place seem even more amazing.