Bud, Sweat and Tees : A Walk on the Wild Side of the PGA Tour (Hardcover)

by Alan Shipnuck (Author) "THERE WERE NO BARS ON THE WINDOWS AT MAGNOLIA Hi-Fi, thought it certainly felt that way to Rich Beem..." (more)
Key Phrases: Kemper Open, Rich Beem, Las Cruces (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Unless your name is Tiger Woods, there are no easy rides on the PGA Tour--particularly your first year--and no one's ever confused fun-loving Rich Beem's game with the Tiger's. Still, Sports Illustrated's Alan Shipnuck struck gold by picking Beem and his rookie season as subjects to chronicle in Bud, Sweat, & Tees: A Walk on the Wild Side of the PGA Tour. To begin with, he found a colorful player with a renegade personality who actually managed to confound the odds and post victory--at the 1999 Kemper Open. But there's more. As vivid a character as Beem turns out to be, his caddie Steve Duplantis, who'd previously toted for Jim Furyk, is a true rogue who makes Beem seem a choirboy by comparison.

Shipnuck provides all the necessary drama of life on the course, but the real fun of Bud, Sweat, & Tees is life beyond it, how Beem and Duplantis survive the highs and lows the game provides. At his best, Shipnuck manages to bring together their shared existence within the ropes and beyond, nowhere better than in Memphis the week after Beem's victory. He and Duplantis, who first caddied for him at the Kemper, have gone to Tennessee to try qualifying for the 1999 U.S. Open. That Beem misses is but a sidelight of the tour de force sequence that sees their relationship form against the backdrop of Duplantis cheating on his ex-fiancée Shannon--recalled by both Duplantis and Shannon, who's nannying Duplantis's daughter--as Beem is trying to focus on his game.

It begins in a bar, the three of them together, with Beem ogling Shannon as she walks to the ladies' room, and Duplantis calling him on it. "The player-caddie dynamic is always delicate," writes Shipnuck, "to the point that it is often discussed in the nomenclature of a courtship. For Beem and Duplantis, then, winning their first tournament together was like sleeping together on a first date--fun, to be sure, but complicated. If they were going to have a meaningful long-term relationship they would need a few more nights like this, getting to know each other." The nights--and days--that follow are as fun to read as the greens at Augusta. --Jeff Silverman

From Publishers Weekly
Despite its droll title, Sports Illustrated writer Shipnuck's first book affords an earnest and unsentimental portrayal of life on the PGA tour. It follows two of golf's lesser-known figures through the 1999 season: a rookie named Rich Beem, who won the Kemper Open that year, and his caddie Steve Duplantis. Both men open up to Shipnuck about their personal histories, as do their families, friends, colleagues, lovers and former employers. Tightly weaving the private with the professional, the author chronicles Beem's inconsistent, occasionally brilliant performances on the golf course, alongside his past jobs, romances and periodic problems with alcohol. Duplantis, who often falls short in his responsibilities as a caddy because of his inability to manage a turbulent personal life, gets a similarly nuanced treatment. Indeed, the depth to which Shipnuck delves into their difficulties with money, family and their own partnership gives his narrative an almost painful poignancy. As for the golf itself, the author clearly knows his subject, and his keen-eyed descriptions of Beem and Duplantis at work both entertain and enlighten. He gives an exciting play-by-play of their miraculous victory at the Kemper Open, wherein Beem executed one brilliant shot after another, mainly as a result of Duplantis's ego-boosting exhortations. By tempering such stories of his subjects' heroics with the mundane realities of their lives, Shipnuck portrays them as flawed, likeable people who struggle like the rest of us, with imperfect results. (Jan.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 8th Printing edition (January 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743200705
• ISBN-13: 978-0743200707
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #537,613 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant behind-the-scenes expose of the PGA tour, December 24, 2000

By	Allan Diamond - See all my reviews

Entertaining, bawdy but sometimes poignant look at two very complicated lives that intersect on the golf course. The serious, introspective side of the book is balanced by the off-the-course exploits of drinking in the clubhouse and partying in strip bars. Alan Shipnuck expands on the humorous themes in golf that he writes about in his...column. His youthful, energetic style is perfect for a holiday read.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best...Simply, the Best, August 27, 2002

By	John R. Linnell (New Gloucester, ME United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

If you follow the game of professional golf, this is the best book ever writtten about The PGA Tour. John Winestein wishes he had written this book. It chronicles what it is like as a bottom feeder in experience, as well as how that all gets changed around through "blood, sweat and tears." The two principals of the book, Rich Beem, aspiring PGA Pro and Steve Duplantis, his caddie are real people with real problems and real answers,... sometimes. Beem has burst even further onto the PGA scene since this was written by winning The International and the PGA Championship in back to back outings in 2002. That will no doubt be the subject of another book, but it cannot surpass the brutal honesty and interest of this first effort. You must not pass this by, if golf is a part of your life.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Don't judge a book by its cover!, December 4, 2001

By A Customer

I have the feeling that the author of this book wasn't entirely thrilled by the artwork used on the this book's cover. The artwork suggests that the book is chock full of racy details about the lives of PGA professional golfers and their caddies. This book is not. If that is what you are looking for, don't buy it.

However, if you are looking for a fascinating look inside one summer's events following a rookie on the PGA Tour and his eccentric caddy, then you will love this book. I couldn't put it down. You don't have to be a golfer or even a great golf fan to find yourself captivated by this story. I'll never watch golf the same way again.

I learned some incredible details about the business of golf that floored me. I had no idea so much money was circulating out there and that so many people were just looking for the hottest new player to throw it at.

For a book that advertises itself as a look at the wild side of the PGA Tour, I was disappointed that there weren't more of the frat party type stories in the book. I'm fairly certain they occured and either the author wasn't privey to such information, or he chose not to include it. More of that would had made this book more "Ball Fouresque" and would have earned the fifth star from me.