A Slice of Golfing Literature Part 16:Gary Moran discovers an enlightening and entertaining read informer tour caddie Michael Bamberger's 'The Green Road Home'

"I'm fairly well addicted. Some people are doing drugs. Some people are drinking. I don't need any of that stuff. I just play golf."

Singer Charley Pride was playing in his 10th PGA Tour pro-am of the season when he expressed those sentiments in 1985 and it was only April.

Pride was one of many interesting characters who crossed the path of Michael Bamberger during his stint as a tour caddie. Not long out of college and not ready to settle down, Bamberger hit the road with $5,000 and the goal of staying on tour for six months or until the money ran out.

It was more than a minor bonus for Bamberger that he got to see a chunk of the world outside his native Long Island and learned a fair bit about top class golf. It was more than a minor bonus for the rest of us he chronicled his experiences in The Green Road Home, an enlightening and entertaining read that helped him on the way to a career with Sports Illustrated.

Unlike Lawrence Donegan who caddied almost exclusively for Ross Drummond when writing Four Iron In The Soul, Bamberger, as much through necessity as choice, worked for a mixed bag of players. He started with a young Brad Faxon who sacked him after a week, a US Open qualifier, an American playing in the British Open while on honeymoon, a club professional who qualified for the PGA, a former Masters winner, a promising rookie, a genuine journeyman and a struggling veteran.

To get a pass mark from Faxon a caddie had to execute the basics of keeping pace, keeping ball and clubs clean, keeping things dry in the rain and giving accurate yardages. Honours came from the intangibles like knowing when to gee the player up and knowing when to shut up.

Bamberger had enough trouble with the tangibles during their first tournament round as first he mislaid Faxon's card and then left the ninth tee juggling his driver, a new sleeve of balls, a sweater and a half-eaten banana. The partnership didn't survive the tournament.

Things went considerably better with the journeyman, Bill Britton, although Britton's play was considerably worse. It is amazing to think that less than 20 years ago a player could even venture onto the Tour with an average driving distance of only 240 yards yet that's what Britton did. Having missed every cut in the first half of the year, he then lost out in a play-off for a spot in the US Open with Bamberger on his bag. "You know what the crazy thing is?" asked Britton. "I'd come out tomorrow and do the whole thing again. Sick, isn't it?"

Only sick in the same, harmless way that Charley Pride was addicted.

Bamberger did scrape past the cut in the US PGA with Westchester Hills club professional Kevin Morris. Bamberger rated Morris "a good player (and a very nice guy) but not a Tour player. The difference between the good player and the Tour player is a world made of 10 per cent skill and 90 per cent attitude."

That might explain why Morris is still giving lessons at Westchester Hills 18 years later (hourly rate $120). Bamberger's six months and $5,000 expired at the same time but he was back in 1993 to write To The Linksland about caddieing in Europe and playing in Scotland and he also assisted Davis Love III with Every Shot I Take which won the USGA International Golf Book of the Year award in 1997.