Book Review: Walking With Greatness

While the names of PGA tour caddies the likes of Steve Williams, Joe LaCava, Mike “Fluff” Cowen, and Jim “Bones” Mackay might be the more familiar to golf fans, the name of caddie-turned-author, Cayce Kerr, should rank in the same class with these famous loopers.

A successful entrepreneur and raconteur whose talents are not limited to caddying, Cayce Kerr runs a successful beverage business and is a noted after-dinner speaker. Kerr has been a PGA Tour caddie for seven former ‘No. 1 players’ over almost 40 years and has worked more than 1,000 tournaments including 30 Masters. It is with this background that his first literary piece including title and subtitle, is labeled “Walking With Greatness: My Caddie Life On The Tour With Fred, Fuzzy, Vijay, Tiger, and More.”

Kerr began his caddying career in 1987 at Congressional County Club and within a year had managed to work his way onto the PGA Tour. Armed with a quick wit and deep golf knowledge, combined with a no nonsense attitude, Kerr swiftly rose to the top echelon of his profession partnering with more than a dozen major champions.

In a paragraph on the first page of this book’s Forward (written by fellow PGA Tour caddie, Billy Foster) it is stated that as excellent as Kerr is at caddying, he is even better at story telling and he sure has some great ones to tell. And thus, the tone is set for the captivating tales told in the following 22 chapters; there are pro versus caddie incidents, caddie versus pro incidents, and caddie versus caddie encounters.

Over the past number of years, my favorite column in each issue of “Golf Digest” is the ‘Undercover Caddie’ series, and as to be expected, the caddie / caddies authoring the article remain anonymous as are the antagonist-perpetrators. However, in his book “Walking With Greatness” Kerr goes a step further and names names.

Cayce Kerr and Vijay Singh

Among my personal favorite take-aways from the book are Kerr’s ‘handling’ of a watering hole bullying situation scoring a ‘TKO’ over a fellow caddie. In another, there is Kerr’s act of goodwill, who while caddying for Fuzzy Zoeller, ‘sealed’ Fred Couples’ cut thumb with superglue from Fuzzy’s bag.

There is an entire chapter covering PGA Tour players’ idiosyncrasies like Ernie Els’ changing the ball after making a birdie because “there is only one birdie in each ball”; and many other extreme superstitions of tour golfers. Another entire chapter is dedicated to caddie nicknames and how they got them. Kerr managed to be the first caddie using and selling rangefinders (Swarovski optics in 1995), and explains the details in Chapter 11. The final chapter, entitled “Caddies Behaving Poorly” wraps up by relating the raucous and tragic tale of Steve Duplantis.

So, as one of golf’s greatest storytellers, Kerr takes readers into the caddyshacks and onto the courses of the PGA Tour with insightful, hilarious, and sometimes unbelievable tales, from legends of the game, to characters, to life on the road; he has authored a work that I highly recommend reading.

Soon to be available at Amazon.com in hard cover and kindle formats.

Product details:
Publisher: Triumph Books
Release Date: March 11, 2025
Language: English
Hardcover: 291 pages
ISBN-10: 1637277121
ISBN-13: 978-1637277126
Item Weight: 1.74 pounds
Dimensions: 6.25” x 9.25” x 1”

(Photos: Courtesy of Triumph Books)