From the Bag to the Bookshelf
Golf Books Written From Inside the Ropes
Three books no tour player could write. No golf journalist could write. The view from decades on the bag — straight onto the page.
The Carnoustie Caddie: How the Course Really Plays
Every hole. Every named bunker. Every wind read you’ll never find in a yardage book. Written by the caddie who has walked these 18 holes more than anyone alive — not by a journalist who visited for a week. Part course guide, part history, part love letter to the hardest links in the world. If you’re playing Carnoustie, read this before you get on the plane.
Hot New Release
The Dark Scottish Caddie: What Your Caddie Is Really Thinking
The inner monologue your caddie has been suppressing for four and a half hours — finally on paper. 71 entries of dry Scottish fury: the shots he’s named, the observations he can’t say out loud, the moments only the gods of golf will understand. Darker than the first book. Funnier than you’re expecting. Golf reading you’ll be quoting at the 19th for years.
From Inside the Ropes
What the Caddie Knows — Coming Soon
How to think on the course the way a caddie does. Reading the wind before you read the yardage. Managing risk on holes where the right play and the brave play are not the same thing. decades of course management thinking — for every course, not just Carnoustie.
Direct from Carnoustie
Or get it signed, from me
Amazon sells the book. I sell the one with your name written in the front of it.
Order here and it comes signed and inscribed to whoever you want it made out to, with a Carnoustie Caddie crest sticker in the envelope, posted from the town itself rather than a warehouse in the Midlands.
- Signed and inscribed by hand — tell me who it’s for at checkout
- A crest sticker in every order
- Posted worldwide, tracked or standard, your choice
- If it doesn’t arrive, tell me and I’ll send another
Just want the book in a hurry? The Amazon links above are quicker — next-day if you have Prime.
What You Are Actually Buying
What is inside the course guide
Most course guides hand you a yardage and a diagram. This one hands you the round — the thinking behind the shot, which is the part a yardage book cannot print.
The Unwritten Rules for Taking a Caddie
What to bring, what to leave on the bus, and the things caddies wish golfers knew before the first tee. Written with a smile, but every word of it true.
What to Expect
Pace of play, payment, the community, and how to say the name. It is Carnous-TIE. Ends in tee. There is a four foot sign with it written on.
The Caddie’s Toolkit
Reading the wind before you read the yardage. Bounce and the running game. The mental side. And the bunkers — all 112 of them, and why that number should change the way you play.
The Named Bunkers
Braid’s. Nicklaus’s. Big Flatty. The Spectacles. Johnny Miller’s. And the Tiger Bunker, with the case for why it should have been the sixth.
Where the Hole Names Came From
How Hogan’s Alley got its name. Why the tenth is called South America. Who John Philp was. What happened at Lucky Slap.
A Glossary, and a Final Word
The language of a Scottish links, so nothing said on the bag goes over your head.
And all eighteen holes, by name rather than by number.
Cup · Gulley · Jockie’s Burn · Hillocks · Brae · Hogan’s Alley · Plantation · Short · Railway · South America · John Philp · Southward Ho · Whins · The Spectacles · Lucky Slap · Barry Burn · Island · Home
Questions I get asked
Is this a yardage book?
No. Yardages shift with the wind, the ground and the tees. This is the thinking behind the shot — the part a yardage book cannot print.
I am playing Carnoustie for the first time. Will it help?
That is exactly who it is written for. Read it before you get on the plane, not on the first tee.
I am not playing Carnoustie. Is it still worth reading?
The course management chapters travel, and so does the history. But be honest with yourself — it is a book about one golf course, written by someone who loves it.
Are you affiliated with Carnoustie Golf Links?
No. It is an independent book. Everything in it comes from a lifetime of carrying bags there, not from the club.
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