{"id":604745,"date":"2026-02-15T15:57:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T15:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/604745\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T15:57:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T15:57:20","slug":"rick-reilly-caddies-for-utah-jazz-owner-ryan-smith-at-pebble-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/604745\/","title":{"rendered":"Rick Reilly caddies for Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith at Pebble Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feb. 13, 2026Updated Feb. 15, 2026, 8:36 a.m. ET<\/p>\n

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. \u2013 Why is 11-time National Sportswriter of the Year Rick Reilly<\/a> on the bag of a billionaire sports owner at the 2026 Pebble Beach Pro-Am?<\/p>\n

Reilly, 68, a\u00a0New York Times\u00a0best-selling author and best-known for his back-page column in Sports Illustrated, is working on a sequel to his 2003 hit \u201cWho\u2019s Your Caddy<\/a>?\u201d In that book, he recounts his experiences caddying for famous golfers and celebrities and offers a funny and revealing look at the world of golf. In the original collection, he lugged the bags for everyone from Donald Trump to the blind world golf champion.\u00a0He’s at it again.<\/p>\n

Reilly\u2019s on the bag for Ryan Smith, a co-founder of Qualtrics, a cloud-based software company that he sold for billions. Smith has since invested in sports franchises, becoming the owner of the NBA\u2019s Utah Jazz<\/a> and NHL\u2019s Utah Mammoth in his home state. He\u2019s also a devoted golfer, who played in the DP World Tour\u2019s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland in September. and he\u2019s close friends with six-time PGA Tour winner Tony Finau. The duo is paired together this week at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Reilly swung the gig as his caddie for a chapter in the book scheduled to be released for Father’s Day in 2027.<\/p>\n

\"Amateur<\/p>\n

Reilly didn\u2019t have it too bad \u2013 Smith was using a light, kickstand bag at Spyglass and Pebble Beach. Reilly knows the deal from past experience as a caddie \u2013 show up, keep up, shut up \u2013 and promised he\u2019d do better on Friday during the second and final round of the 36-hole pro-am. Smith dismissed the notion. \u201cDon\u2019t change a thing tomorrow,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those are words any caddie would love to hear. But ultimately, the final proof of how well he does comes down to the tip at the end of the week. How much does a billionaire give for a little effort?<\/p>\n

Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n

Said Reilly: \u201cI\u2019ll settle for a ride in his jet!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 13, 2026Updated Feb. 15, 2026, 8:36 a.m. ET PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. \u2013 Why is 11-time National Sportswriter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3785],"tags":[72400,7,423,6,80601,80602,80604,72912,73112,80603,72459,72444,72422,74369,72405,80605,72406,72465,72403,422,427,3972],"class_list":{"0":"post-604745","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-utah-jazz","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-jazz","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-sstssportsgolfpga","13":"tag-sstsnpga-tour","14":"tag-tagbooks-literature","15":"tag-tagcelebrities-entertainment-news","16":"tag-tagdonald-trump","17":"tag-taggolf","18":"tag-taglocal-affiliate-arts-entertainment","19":"tag-tagnational-sports","20":"tag-tagnba","21":"tag-tagnew-york-times-company","22":"tag-tagoverall-positive","23":"tag-tagpga-tour","24":"tag-tagsports-news","25":"tag-tagutah-jazz","26":"tag-typestory","27":"tag-utah","28":"tag-utah-jazz","29":"tag-utahjazz"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116075472263006024","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}