Average customer rating:
- I loved this book
- Michael Murphy: Revolutionary Thinker
- An acidhead's philosophizing of golf
- The Classic Book That Started the Non-Mechanical Revolution
- Golf in space and time
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Golf in the Kingdom (An Esalen Book)
Michael Murphy
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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The Kingdom of Shivas Irons
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ASIN: 0140195491 |
Amazon.com
Esalen Institute founder Michael Murphy's divine meditation on the royal and ancient game defied categorization when it was first published in 1972, and it still does. Instantly hailed as a classic, Golf in the Kingdom is an altogether unique confluence of fiction, philosophy, myth, mysticism, enchantment, and golf instruction. The central character is a wily Scotsman named Shivas Irons, a golf professional by vocation and a shaman by design, whom Murphy, as participant in his own novel, meets in 1956 on the links of Burningbush, in Fife. The story of their round of golf together culminates in a wild night of whiskey and wisdom where, as Shivas demonstrates how the swing reflects the soul, their golf quite literally takes on a metaphysical glow. The events alter not only Murphy's game, but they also radically alter his mind and inner vision; it's truly unforgettable. For a golfer, Murphy's masterpiece is as essential as a set of clubs.
Book Description
The perennially bestselling golf title, Golf in the Kingdom, hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as the "masterpiece on the mysticism of golf," is a wonderfully told romp through the Scottish links, the most beautiful and challenging golf courses in the world where, truly, anything is possible. This audio discusses the essential deep truths about the game of golf and also expands on some new and extremely unique approaches to golf instruction.
John Hannah, an accomplished stage actor, has appeared on television and in the films Madagascar Skin, The Final Cut and Four Weddings and a Funeral. He has performed the audio production of Michael Murphy's The Kingdom of Shivas Irons, also available from BDD Audio.
Customer Reviews:
I loved this book.......2007-10-11
This is a great book-- gotta have it
This is wonderful but I also loved A Golfers DreamA Golfer's Dream
Michael Murphy: Revolutionary Thinker.......2007-09-26
I met Michael Murphy in the late 1960's. The charismatic leader of the human potential movement captured my attention and admiration immediately. Mr. Murphy was one of those characters who sparkle with mystical magic. His life reads like a calendar of magical events. At every turn he seems to either run into or encounter the most provocative people one can imagine: Steinbeck, Spiegelberg, Brodie, Price, Aurobindo, Thompson, Maslow, and many, many more.
With the publication of Golf in the Kingdom (His first book), he managed to create a new movement, which came to be known as The Sport and Yoga Movement. The book is a delightful integration of sport, mysticism, and yoga, with a whole lot of magic sprinkled between the lines. I am amazed at its dissenters and critics. It is not "junk" as some need to say. For those of you who say it is "not for golfers", I think I can safely assume that you are regularly shooting twenty to thirty over par. There are some that say that this is just another worn-out philosophical rag, trying to integrate what's common, and I would think for them mundane, with the paranormal and mystical energies that hover all around us. To them, I would say that there is a shread of truth to their thoughts. I would like to ask those people to provide me with any literary references, expousing this thesis, that pre-date Mr. Murphy's book. For those that claim that this is just another clever contrivance for making a quick buck, I would say you are about as far off the mark as those that dismiss the book as "junk". Mr. Murphy was born wealthy. At some point in his life he inherited a large sum of money, most of which he either donated or spent in efforts to enhance the human condition. When I met the man, I believe that it was in 1969, he was driving an aged 1962, six cylinder, stick shift Cheverolet. He had bought the car new, and at that time felt that he could get at least another ten years out of it.
Bravo, Michael. Bravo for Golf in the Kingdom, and bravo for a life well lived.
Ronald James
An acidhead's philosophizing of golf.......2007-06-27
This was Out There. I'm not sure if it is for burnout golfers or just burnouts. I don't think I would classify this as a sports book, more like bad philosophy. I couldn't even believe in the main character, Shivas, I was too aware of his being a mouthpiece for Murphy's attempts to revolutionize one's conceptualization of golf...or life...or something like that...I still don't know. What the heck was his point??
The Classic Book That Started the Non-Mechanical Revolution.......2007-03-29
Golf is a great sport - we all know that. But it's only been in the past couple of decades where we started to bring the focus back on the inner and spiritual qualities of the game - it's always been there but somehow we got distracted with the mechanics and competitive nature of the game. This book is THE classic, the one that started the revolution of mental and inner golf. It took me a while to get through it the first time, but after that, I would pick it up time and time again - it's THAT kind of a book. I highly recommend it.
Golf in space and time .......2007-01-29
Patrick Murphy was told he tries too hard and thinks too much when playing golf. On the North Sea in Fife there is an ancient golf course, a golf links. The author met a philosopher-poet on a golf course in Scotland in 1956.
In 1956 Michael Murphy was on his way to India to an ashram to visit the Indian seer, Aurobindo. His mental environment at the time included sayings of Aurobindo, St John of the Cross, Plotinus, and Meister Eckhart. The name of the person in the golf course encounter is Shivas Irons. A year and a half later, in California, the voice of Shvias Irons had taken root in Murhpy's head. Richard Price, a classmate at Stanford, and Murphy set up an institute, Esalen, a residential program, to explore human potential. Murphy returned to Scotland in 1970. He found out Shivas Irons had left some time in 1963.
Personal charm is physical. Irons was not an ordinary golf porfessional. His look was part of his teaching. Shivas played in the Kingdom of Fife. He stressed adherence to the rules. The name here is Shivas as in Chivas Regal. The golf guru being described is a Scotsman.
When Murphy had dinner with Shivas and some of his friends someone said that golf is the yoga of the supermind. Supermind is a term from aurobindo. Later, when the author and Shivas went to Shivas's place, it became clear to Michael Murphy that he was being recruited as a sort of publicist to the outside world for Shivas's musings about golf and metaphysics.
In his youth, when club members had wanted Shivas to compete on the international circuit and were willing to pay his expenses, he realized that he had developed a phobia about people that would impair his playing. He had dropped out of college to pursue his spiritual researches. He did, however, enter the British Open. When he managed to overcome his shyness, it seemed that the round was being played in technicolor and that drums sounded. He saw that he could play golf and be a philosopher.
After hearing more details of Shivas's life, Michael Murphy decided that he had to leave for London right away. He was, at the time, fixated on maintaining his travel schedule of trains and so forth. In golf the ratio of goal to playing field is large. In 1944 Shivas went to the U.S. Open in San Francisco and followed Ben Hogan. Ben Hogan was a true teacher, but unconscious of it. Golf is a game of seeing and feeling. It is meant for the walking, not for the shots. The world is a Koan is one of the statements Murphy found in Shivas's notes.
Book Description
The Old Course at St. Andrews is to golfers what St. Peter's is to Catholics or the Western Wall is to Jews: hallowed ground, the course every golfer longs to play -- and master. In 1983 George Peper was playing the Old Course when he hit a slice so hideous that he never found the ball. But in looking for it, he came across a For Sale sign on a stone town house alongside the famed eighteenth hole. Two months later he and his wife, Libby, became the proud owners of 9A Gibson Place.
In 2003 Peper retired after twenty-five years as the editor in chief of Golf magazine. With the younger of their two sons off to college, the Pepers decided to sell their house in the United States and relocate temporarily to the town house in St. Andrews. And so they left for the land of golf -- and single malt scotch, haggis, bagpipes, television licenses, and accents thicker than a North Sea fog. While Libby struggled with renovating an apartment that for years had been rented to students at the local university, George began his quest to break par on the Old Course.
Their new neighbors were friendly, helpful, charmingly eccentric, and always serious about golf. In no time George was welcomed into the local golf crowd, joining the likes of Gordon Murray, the man who knows everyone; Sir Michael Bonallack, Britain's premier amateur golfer of the last century; and Wee Raymond Gatherum, a magnificent shotmaker whose diminutive stature belies his skills.
For anyone who has ever dreamed of playing the Old Course -- and what golfer hasn't? -- this book is the next best thing. And for those who have had that privilege, Two Years in St. Andrews will revive old memories and confirm Bobby Jones's tribute, "If I were to set down to play on one golf course for the remainder of my life, I should choose the Old Course at St. Andrews."
Customer Reviews:
If you love Golf you'll love this Book........2007-08-06
This has to be one of the "Gems" of Golf Travel books.
From start of finish I found this book well written, humorous, sophisticated and wonderfully self-effacing. I would like to meet George Peper; I'm sure we would get along very well. Maybe a game on the Old Course would do the trick.
This is a fabulously entertaining tale of George and his wife's move to St. Andrews from an important position in the U.S.A., namely editor of Golf Digest. The story begins with the acquisition of an apartment overlooking the hallowed turf of the 18th Green of the Old Course at St.Andrews, the home of Golf.
George has the extremely good fortune of being a member of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club and sets about using this privilege to good effect. Not only does he become a popular and successful member, he also achieves a long held ambition; playing a round on the Old Course in Par.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I have been inspired by his "two years of golf" and long to follow his example by playing the Old Course, at least once.
His fondness for the people of St. Andrews and Scotland in general comes through with a warmth and genuinely felt emotion.
I can not imagine anyone finding this book disappointing. To me it has been a wonderful windfall.
I felt as if I were there.......2007-07-29
Someday before I turn 50 (I just turned 40), I plan to visit Scotland and St. Andrew's. But I already feel as if I have been there once after reading Mr. Peper's book.
Mr. Peper really captures the spirit of the town. It's so much different from the hustle and bustle of American life and the digital age in general. He breaks the book into small mostly unrelated "chapters" which highlight part of the town, the course, family, etc.
Thanks, George! Your book was an enjoyable read cover-to-cover.
A good read if you have been to St Andrews.......2007-07-23
George Peper is no Herbert Warren Wind, but his book is an enjoyable read for those who have spent time in St Andrews.
Wonderfull writing of golf and life in its birthplace.......2007-07-19
I loved this book. It was the perfect combination of life and golf in golf's birthplace - St Andrews. The writer provided an excellent look into life in the golf club and the village of St Andrews; their people, the culture and the history. Mr Peper writes with an excellent dry witt and makes you feel as if you know him personally. I enjoy books the most when I feel like I can relate to the place and people being written about and the author was very good at doing this. While being a single digit handicap golfer and a past editor of Golf Magazine and traveling in a very select inside group of professional golfers, media personalities and celebrities, Mr. Peper never took himself too seriously as a golfer, a writer or as a person. The more I read this book, the harder it became to put down and the more I looked forward to reading it the next day. It was educational, enlightening and enjoyable.It is a book you can just lean back, put your feet up and enjoy while at any time of day or night. The only thing that bothered me about this book was wondering how the author pronounced his name, Pepper or Peeper so I contacted a writer who interviewed the author for a magazine and was told that it was Pepper and that he was as enjoyable and selfless in person as he seems in his books. I look forward to Mr Peper's next book.
Great, interesting, funny : you live un st. andrews.......2007-05-16
Thanks George Peper!!!!:
For one of the best golf books. Its as if I was actually there.
I can`t wait to go to the "OLD COURSE" and expirience the magic you narrated in your book.
The srtucture of the story (expirience)is wonderfull and adictive.
You read the first page and want to keep on reading till you can barely keep your eyes open.
If you love reading and golf this book is a must read.
Product Description
Golf in Scotland is designed to help travelers save money and plan their own golf-centered trips to Scotland, the "Home of Golf." Seven chapters offer advice on when to go, where to go, lodging, tee times, and other travel decisions. St. Andrews receives attention in its own chapter. Extensive descriptions of sixty-eight courses feature complete contact information. Appendices include over 170 websites, a bibliography, and a golf-readiness checklist. Indexed.
Customer Reviews:
Best Book on Scotland Golf .......2007-07-21
A little over a year ago, I bought this book as I was going to plan a trip to Scotland with 7 other friends and I wanted to research the best courses to play for a week long trip. I read the book quickly and settled on a number of courses to play. I sent Allan Ferguson an email and he quickly responded and actually helped me coordinate the trip. We got back about 6 weeks ago and it was the most amazing trip that I have ever been on. Not only did the book and Allan's recommendations of courses come in handy, but also he instructed and helped me (as mentioned in his book) coordinate the trip much much cheaper than if I had used one of the well known, but over priced golf travel agencies such as Perry Golf. Quite simply, there isn't a better book on golf in Scotland and if you are thinking about planning a trip, Allan's services or recommendations will come in handy to save you plenty of cash on your trip.
Excellent Trip Planner.......2007-06-09
Unless you're being comped by a lobbyist on your next golf trip to Scotland, buy this book. Ferguson provides accurate and updated information; I found his reviews of courses and places to stay spot on. If you're the type of traveller who prefers the "hidden gems" instead of doing a "grand tour", you will find this book especially useful. I used this book to plan a recent golf trip to Scotland, and it was thoroughly enjoyable.
Spot on!.......2007-03-14
Quite simply, Allan Ferguson "gets it." His logistical knowledge, the people, places, things to do when you're not golfing, the courses, and even hole-by-hole descriptions are invaluable. His sensibilities mirror my own, and that of my group. I have successfully used this book to plan two trips of a lifetime. Like Allan says, you can use this book to travel to Scotland twice for less than the cost of one trip by the tour operators.
Must read.......2007-02-22
A must read before planning your own golf or vacation to Scotland. All the useful info one is looking for. An excellent book and reference guide.
A Must.......2006-09-21
Simply put, if you're an American (on anyone else who can read English) and you want to travel abroad to play golf in Scotland, this book is "a must," the first one you should buy, and maybe the only one you really need. That is, unless you don't care about what the trip will cost and you have no difficulty letting other people make decisions for you. Mr. Ferguson gives you the ins and outs of making your own arrangements, the pros and cons of various approaches, and the highlights of a number of top-notch Scottish golf courses. He gives you the tools to do it on your own, without the tour company or travel agent . . . to create your own golfing adventure. Which is not to say that Mr. Ferguson will not work with you as non-comissioned, fee-based agent (as he's done with me), but it's also very clear he'd be just as happy, maybe more so, to have you buy the book and plan the adventure on your own (as I do now). By the way, the second book you ought to buy is James Finegan's "Where Golf is Great" (see my Amazon review), a judgment with which I feel certain Mr. Ferguson would not disagree.
Product Description
In life you never really know when you might meet someone who will change your life. And more importantly you never know when your influence might change another. This book is about influence. It is about a man who lived in a simple place but had extraordinary insight. He also had something else on his side. He had time; time to invest himself in the life of another who was lost on his journey. This story is based on the thousands of athletes I have counseled and the great mentors and teachers from whom I have learned. I have brought my twenty plus years of peak performance coaching together and compressed them into a story of two fictitious characters; a rancher with a passion for teaching truth and a young golf professional at the end of his rope. They represent each of us in the various stages of growth. For in life we must be willing to coach and be coached, either one alone will leave us empty.
Customer Reviews:
This Book Is A Life Changer.......2007-09-27
I've loved reading from a very youg age. I'm now 60 years old. I have read comic books, text books, even read most of the World Book Encyclopedia one summer while I was in junior high. I have read junk and some of the classics. I have read self-help books and most of all, I have read much of the Bible, but I have never read a book that has made such an impact on my life as Golf's Sacred Journey. (And it even helped my golf game.)
This book transformed my game........2007-06-16
Life is NOT a game. There are things way more important than golf, like my relationship with God through Christ. And the opportunity to use this great game and this great book to share my faith in Christ. As I often say on the course, "I love this game!" and I love Jesus more than ever.
Greatest Golf Book Ever.......2007-05-15
I have read a number of golf psychology books. This is by far the best. I would recommend it to my golfing buddies, but I don't want them to learn the lessons of this book. I need the income from our $2 bets.
Amazon.com
The long-awaited sequel to Golf in the Kingdom takes Murphy back to Scotland in search of another encounter with the mystically enchanting Shivas Irons, a man--if that's indeed what he is--who's part golf professional, part shaman, completely wise, and thoroughly fascinating. Filled with myth, mysticism, metaphysics, advanced string theory (courtesy of fellow searcher and friend, physicist Buck Hannigan), and at times other-worldly golf sequences from Scotland, to Russia, to a climactic round at Pebble Beach, Kingdom resolves its quest in the most unlikely and hard-to-find place of all. "Keep coming," Irons implores his seeker. "Imagine. Practice. Start again. I'm not so far away." Indeed, more than fairways that glow in the dark and drives that can fly 450 yards, it's Irons's ultimate whereabouts that infuses Kingdom with its magic and its mystery.
Book Description
Originally published in 1972, Michael Murphy's Golf in the Kingdom has become one of the bestselling golf books of all time, and has been hailed as "a golf classic if any exists in our day" and "a masterpiece on the mysticism of golf". It also introduced Shivas Irons, the golf pro and philosopher with whom Murphy played a mythic round of golf on Scotland's Burningbush links, a round that profoundly altered his game and vision. Shivas's insights about competition, life, and "true gravity," all instilled in him by his elusive mentor Seamus MacDuff, captured the imaginations and the devoted following of students of the inner game of golf.
The Kingdom of Shivas Irons is the enchanting story of Murphy's return to Scotland to investigate reports of further visitations by Shivas Irons, and to answer questions about him and MacDuff that have haunted Murphy since his original trip to Burningbush some thirty-one years before. Murphy and his companion Buck Hannigan, a skeptical physicist fascinated by Shivas's connections to metanormal events, embark on a magical quest for Irons and MacDuff--and their wisdom about golf and human potential.
From the mystical golf course surrounding MacDuff's estate in Scotland, across the world to the first Russian Open Golf Championship and finally to Pebble Beach on the California Coast, The Kingdom of Shivas Irons is a delightful exploration of the deep truths about the game of golf and a provocative inquiry into our remarkable possibilities for growth and transformation.
John Hannah, an accomplished stage actor, has appeared on television and in the films Madagascar Skin, The Final Cut and Four Weddings and a Funeral. He can be heard on the audio production of Michael Murphy's Golf in the Kingdom, also available from BDD Audio.
Download Description
Thirty year, after the publication of Golf in the Kingdom, the bestselling classic that defined the inner game of golf, Michael Murphy returns to investigate further visitations by the mythic golf pro and philosopher Shivas Irons and his elusive mentor Seamus MacDuff. Confronting questions about Shivas Irons and MacDuff that have haunted readers for decades, The Kingdom of Shivas Irons takes us on a mystical tour from revered Scottish links, to Moscow for the first Russian Open Golf Championship, and finally to Pebble Beach on the California coast. This marvelous exploration is a provocative inquiry into the deep truths about the game of golf and the possibilities for personal transformation.
Customer Reviews:
A journey to..........2005-07-19
I read the Kingdom of Shivas Irons just after finishing Golf in the Kingdom. Perhaps it was because I still had so much in my head from the older work that the impression Shivas Irons left on me was mediocre at best. So much of what was built up in the original was either expanded along a side-path or seemingly dumped for one reason or another. Much of this is completely new information, with very little connected with the original.
I don't want to give many explicit examples for those still trying to decide whether to read the two books, but virtually everything regarding Seamus Macduff seems to have been turned upside-down. Pythagoris and other philosophers seem to take a holiday as well.
On the good side, however, we get the involvement of a whole new host of characters, including Ziparelli, the anti-Shivas. Mechanics (which he can't keep in his head) and technology (that breaks down on him) are his tools, and he serves as a farsicle figure, something absent from the original tale. There is a more intense mixing of mysticism as well, which will appeal to some.
If you truly enjoyed Golf in the Kingdom, it might be best to pass this by. Your image of the whole thing may be turned on its head. If you thought it mediocre, this may be more appealing to you. If you hated the original, I doubt there is anything here for you.
As sequals go---- A pretty damned good one!.......2003-01-01
While it's always difficult to follow-up a blockbuster novel, movie etc Michael Murphy has done so with remarkable style and panache. Although written almost 30 years after 'Golf in the Kingdom' first debuted, 'The Kingdom of Shivas Irons' is definitely worth the read. Murphy goes back to Scotland to try to track down the elusive and enlightened Shivas with mixed results. Several adventures along the way make the reader think about the true meanings of golf and life as metaphysical happenings deeper than what's on the surface. If you liked G.I.T.K, you will not be disappointed with this sequal. This book, like the first one is similar to an onion--- peeling off several layers of meaning only reveals to you several more. Digging into this book and it's liquid smooth plot make you feel like you're out on the course 170 yards from the hole with a five-iron in hand ready to go for broke over a pond. It draws you in slowly and very subtley, but the effect is still the same--- you come away shaking your head in amazement!
The Emperor Has No Clothes.......2002-12-13
Michael Murphy's 1972 novel "Golf In The Kingdom" deservedly became a cult classic in spite of some fairly dodgy attempts at portraying Scots dialect and culture. This was because he got it right with the golf while the mystical, metaphysical elements of the story added an extra angle of interest despite being a wee bit hokey in places.
This time out, with the sequel "The Kingdom of Shivas Irons", the golf seems to take a back seat to the metaphysical, New Age stuff, while his portrayal of the Scots comes across as patronising and ridiculous. Indeed, by halfway through the novel one begins to wonder whether Murphy has ever even been to Scotland and experienced anything of the people and culture besides spending time on the country's spectacular golf links.
Buy "Golf In The Kingdom" and enjoy. But beware of the sequel, "The Kingdom of Shivas Irons", which is unfortunately second-rate and adds nothing worthwhile to Murphy's original vision.
A mixed bag.......2002-06-09
This follow-up to 1972's "Golf In the Kingdom" is, to say the least, a mixed bag.
On the positive side, Murphy's use of language to describe and evoke physical landscapes and the natural environment is, as in its predecessor, breathtaking. The novel's structure and pace are also sound.
On the negative side, some of the characters in "The Kingdom of Shivas Irons" ring false from the outset, to the point of being laughable. For example, the Scots physicist Buck Hannigan, one of the major characters: I would be surprised if there was a single person in Scotland named "Buck". Sure, this kind of Americanism is a minor detail, but it calls into question how much Murphy really knows about the land where golf was born and the nation of people who established it. Because of this, the storyteller's credibility is somewhat devalued.
Murphy's novel explores golf not as a mere game but as a sort of grand metaphysical experiment, dipping into a hodge-podge of New Age beliefs towards which the sceptical reader may sometimes wince. This aspect of the book reminded me that while open-mindedness is generally a virtue, there's also a saying that "An open mind may let in falsehoods as well as truths". "The Kingdom of Shivas Irons" contains some interesting ideas but a lot of utter nonsense and psychobabble as well.
Worthwhile reading, but only when taken with a pinch of salt beforehand.
Golf as Integral Practice.......2001-01-30
This book has everything I could ever want in a book: an engaging story, a shamanic quest, metaphysical speculation and Bill Murray. Golf as a martial art. Golf as integral practice for "the life beyond." This is the only golf book I've ever picked up that refers to Henry Corbin's "Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth," and Sufi/Orthodox/Catholic spiritual practices. Really a very enchanting story. Makes me want to take up golf and go muck about in Scotland. Highly recommended.
Customer Reviews:
The Bible is no longer in print!.......1998-06-24
For anyone who is interested in golf course architecture, this book is a must for your library. Contains a complete index (a continuous work-in-process) of architects and their courses. Essentially every course in the world (including those which are no longer in existance), is listed including its location, date of orgin and the architects who created it also the provider of any known substantial (professional) renovation work. It must take a tremendous effort for the authors to keep this book up to date. I hope the fact that this book is no longer in print indicates that the authors are hard at work. If you do not have a copy find one, if you have to go the the library and photocopy theirs (but bring a stack of dimes its very long).
Book Description
Every golfer dreams of making a pilgrimage to the British Isles, and it sometimes seems as though every golfer is in fact making that pilgrimage, especially when you're trying to book a tee time. The legendary courses of Scotland and Ireland are magnificent shrines, but their fame has obscured the greatness of the golf to be found all across the landscape of England and Wales.
From the heathland in the north and center to the linksland on the coasts, England and Wales present an extraordinary variety of great golf experiences. In All Courses Great and Small, James W. Finegan treats the reader to a countries-wide survey of these golfing delights -- some famous, like the Open Championship venues of Royal Birkdale, Royal Lytham & St. Annes, and Royal St. George's; some well known, like Sunningdale, Wentworth, and The Belfry; and some gems that have long been hidden in plain sight, like The Addington (in suburban London) or Southport & Ainsdale (not ten minutes from Royal Birkdale). There are as many outstanding courses in England and Wales as there are in Scotland and Ireland combined, a shocking fact that is easily explained: While Scotland has 5.2 million people and 550 golf courses, and Ireland has 3.5 million people and 400 courses, England and Wales have 50 million people and more than 2,000 courses.
Finegan provides a charming guide to the courses and the towns, the inns and the eateries to be found along the way. He highlights the best of the not quite four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire; gives advice about lunch after your round at Sandwich; raises a cup of grog at Gog Magog; and tackles the playing and pronouncing problems posed by Pwllheli. He gives full due to the best-known places such as Rye, Wentworth, Hoylake, and the royals, but he also declares such lesser-known treasures as St. Enodoc, Silloth-on-Solway, Southerndown, and Pennard to be every bit as worthy of your time and attention. His books on the courses of Scotland and Ireland, Blasted Heaths and Blessed Greens and Emerald Fairways and Foam-Flecked Seas, have become invaluable companions to thousands of travelers; All Courses Great and Small is an irresistible and even more essential addition to the touring golfer's shelf and suitcase.
Customer Reviews:
Truly Exceptional again.......2003-04-22
Well, mr Finegan has done it again. Terrific description of well selected courses in England and Wales.
Book Description
The town of Dornoch, Scotland, lies at nearly the same latitude as Juneau, Alaska. A bit too far removed for the taste of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, the Royal Dornoch Golf Club has never hosted a British Open, but that has hardly diminished its mystique or its renown. In an influential piece for The New Yorker in 1964, Herbert Warren Wind wrote, "It is the most natural course in the world. No golfer has completed his education until he has played and studied Royal Dornoch."
If any town in the world deserves to be described as "the village of golf," it's Dornoch. You can take the legendary links away from St. Andrews, and you'll still have a charming and beautiful university town with great historic significance; take the links away from Dornoch and it would be as little noted or known as its neighbors Golspie, Tain, and Brora. (The town is forty miles north of Inverness, generally thought of as the northernmost outpost of civilization in Scotland.) The game has been played in Dornoch for some four hundred years. Its native son Donald Ross brought the style of the Dornoch links to America, where his legendary, classic courses include Pinehurst #2, Seminole, and Oak Hill.
Lorne Rubenstein decided to spend a summer in Dornoch to clear the muddle from his golfing mind and to rediscover the natural charms of the game he loves. But in the Highlands he found far more than bracing air and challenging greens. He found a people shaped by the harshness of the land and the difficulty of drawing a living from it, and still haunted by a historic wrong inflicted on their ancestors nearly two centuries before. Rubenstein met many people of great thoughtfulness and spirit, eager to share their worldviews, their life stories, and a wee dram or two. And as he explored the empty, rugged landscape, he came to understand the ways in which the thorny, quarrelsome qualities of the game of golf reflect the values, character, and history of the people who brought it into the world.
A Season in Dornoch is both the story of one man's immersion in the game of golf and an exploration of the world from which it emerged. Part travelogue, part portraiture, part good old-fashioned tale of matches played and friendships made, it takes us on an unforgettable journey to a marvelous, moody, mystical place.
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The town of Dornoch, Scotland, lies at nearly the same latitude as Juneau, Alaska. A bit too far removed for the taste of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, the Royal Dornoch Golf Club has never hosted a British Open, but that has hardly diminished its mystique or its renown. In an influential piece for The New Yorker in 1964, Herbert Warren Wind wrote, "It is the most natural course in the world. No golfer has completed his education until he has played and studied Royal Dornoch." If any town in the world deserves to be described as "the village of golf," it's Dornoch. You can take the legendary links away from St. Andrews, and you'll still have a charming and beautiful university town with great historic significance; take the links away from Dornoch and it would be as little noted or known as its neighbors Golspie, Tain, and Brora. (The town is forty miles north of Inverness, generally thought of as the northernmost outpost of civilization in Scotland.) The game has been played in Dornoch for some four hundred years. Its native son Donald Ross brought the style of the Dornoch links to America, where his legendary, classic courses include Pinehurst #2, Seminole, and Oak Hill. Lorne Rubenstein decided to spend a summer in Dornoch to clear the muddle from his golfing mind and to rediscover the natural charms of the game he loves. But in the Highlands he found far more than bracing air and challenging greens. He found a people shaped by the harshness of the land and the difficulty of drawing a living from it, and still haunted by a historic wrong inflicted on their ancestors nearly two centuries before. Rubenstein met many people of great thoughtfulness and spirit, eager to share their worldviews, their life stories, and a wee dram or two.
Customer Reviews:
Much more than just Golf. Another Golf Travel "Gem"........2007-08-12
Lorne Rubenstein has written a wonderful account of his stay in Dornoch , a tiny village in the Scottish Highlands, famous for its legendary golf course Royal Dornoch.
In superbly crafted prose, the Author tells of his Golfing experiences at this 'Holy Grail' of golf clubs, which along with St. Andrews, Carnoustie, Royal Troon, Royal Aberdeen, Turnberry, Muirfield and North Berwick is one of the most historic and revered courses in Scotland.
He and his non-golf playing wife Nell meet many warm and wise locals and form a strong bond with them and the community in Dornoch. The story is so well told , both in terms of pace and content, that it makes for very enjoyable and rapid reading.
Lorne is obviously already a very capable golfer but falls under the spell of golf in such a beautiful and remote location, rediscovering the shear joy of non-competitive play, the grandness and openness of the natural surroundings, the kindness and decency of Scotland's people and his own longing to reconnect with the pleasures and benefits of Golf as played in Dornoch.
A highly recommended read for the golfer who has traveled, or wishes to travel to the Homeland of Golf.
Good Friend.......2007-01-11
If golf is good friend of yours, you will enjoy this book. It certainly helps to have been in Scotland to understand better much of what is written.
A Wonderful Account of a Summer in Paradise.......2006-11-02
When I picked up a "Season in Dornoch" I was expecting something different. However, Lorne Rubenstein, with his words, has painted a beautiful landscape of the people and place that is Dornoch. I had the privledge of playing there several years ago but was on a whirlwind tour at the time and was in Dornoch for less that a day. This book does a wonderful job in showing me what I missed.
Two things of which I would be critical. First, the focus on the Clearances. Obviously the Highlanders were hard done by this event but is was over 200 years ago. Time to put it in the past. Second, I would have liked to see better descriptions of the course itself. Many of the stories from the book are written while golfing, but there is not that much specific information on the course. One of the reasons for Dornoch's fame is it was the birthplace and training ground for one of the world's most respected course designers, Donald Ross. Showing how this course influenced Ross' later works would have added an excellent dimension to the book.
A definite read if you enjoy golf.
A wonderful read, much more than I bargained for.......2004-05-14
I bought the book for a lesson in golf history, but was fascinated by the ecology, history and culture of the Scottish Highlands as desribed by the author. It is also a beautifully written travelogue, poetic and mystical, and has certainly changed the way I think about golf. This book could only have been improved by the addition of photographs.
Green Envy.......2003-08-13
This is a lovely book about a lovely place. The author had the great good fortune to spend an entire summer in the north Scotland burgh of Dornoch, one of the hallowed locales for lovers of links golf. His stories of experiences with residents are charming, and along with reflections on the infamous Clearances of the 1800's, make this far more than a book about golf.
As someone who cherishes the memory of a mere 2 days in Dornoch, I am green with envy, but the envy is tempered by the flood of good memories that Mr. Rubenstein brought back to me. So, I suggest: read this terrific book; also read Michael Bamberger's equally wonderful 'To the Linksland'; and finally, make it your mission to play Royal Dornoch, Cruden Bay, Macrihanish, and other splendid Scottish links. Ah..........
Average customer rating:
- Good bounces, Bad read
- No secret is sacred - no one is spared
- All the bounces were good
- A GREAT Read
- Intimate sharing of a life in golf
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Good Bounces & Bad Lies: The Autobiography of Ben Wright
Ben Wright , and
Michael Patrick Shiels
Manufacturer: Sleeping Bear Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1886947228 |
Amazon.com
You've got to give this to former CBS golf analyst Ben Wright: he can sure tell a story, and the further he shoves his soft-spiked foot into his mouth, the better the stories. His anecdotal autobiography flits back and forth between idolatry and wickedness, and at times his pen has no governor at all. Case in point: Wright idolized Ben Hogan. He even went AWOL from the British army in 1953 "shamelessly, though without a trace of guilt," he admits, because it was the only way he could get off base to see Hogan win the Open at Carnoustie. (It's hard to quarrel with that.) After teeing up several tales that firmly ensconce Hogan on his pedestal, Wright finally veers off this way: "These stories illustrate the kind of perfection, dedication and respect with which Gary McCord"--Wright's fellow CBS analyst, and a pretty funny guy in his own right--"was wholly unfamiliar." Fore! Wright then proceeds to launch into a tale of introducing McCord to Hogan, Hogan humiliating McCord when he finds out McCord's been on tour for 17 years and has no victories, and Wright, who clearly detests McCord, getting to gloat, "I told you so."
Wright likes to gloat; he does a lot of it in Good Bounces, and he's awfully entertaining--if somewhat small--when he does. He's also entertaining on the intricacies and personalities of CBS's golf broadcasts, and what an analyst must go through when he criticizes a player. When Wright kept chastising Peter Jacobsen's atrocious putting, Jacobsen claimed he'd exorcised those woes by mentally imaging Wright being hoisted from the TV tower by a helicopter and flown into outer space. Which is about where Wright ultimately wound up when he hooked his career into the drink with some out-of-bounds comments about women golfers, breasts, and lesbianism in 1995. He still offers a bagful of excuses for the incident that badly tarnished him, but he does treat it with appropriate seriousness and contrition. He makes no excuses, though, for the alcoholism that actually sunk him. Given the public nature of his disgrace, Good Bounces is something of a mulligan for Wright. As both raconteur and provocateur, he's made a pretty good shot of it. --Jeff Silverman
Book Description
One of golf’s preeminent commentators with more than fifty years of experience, Ben Wright relates the wealth of experiences he’s gained from writing and broadcasting about the world’s greatest golfers and courses, and his take on the infamous interview that cost him his twenty-three-year career as a golf announcer with CBS Sports.
In Good Bounces and Bad Lies, Wright brings the reader into the world of professional golf—and professional golf broadcasting—depicting in equal measure the game’s grace and tradition as well as its often raucous behind-the-scenes character. Wright tells of the ups and downs of his expansive career, relating dozens of funny and outrageous anecdotes along the way. Having known such greats as Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Seve Ballesteros, Tom Watson, and many other prominent figures in the world of golf, Wright gives the true insider’s perspective. Although controversial, Wright is an entertaining and engaging figure who personifies the elegance and audacity of the game of golf. This Bison Books edition features a new afterword by the author.
Customer Reviews:
Good bounces, Bad read.......2006-07-24
Wright's tales are stupendous, but to the point of being absurd. This is one of the few books in years that I finally just put down. He defects from the army to watch Hogan, his house is reduced to rubble but he and his sister miraculously survive; his overzealous buddy grabs a waiter and pulls him outside to beat him senseless...sheesh. I liked Wright as a commentator but leave this book on the shelf.
No secret is sacred - no one is spared.......2002-11-27
Wright's book basically, after he gets through some obligatory stories about golf in England when he was young, is a tell all about most of the peole he has worked with at CBS Sports. If it is not a tell all, it will do 'til one comes around. Most of the problem is with alcohol...we hear of interventions, wild partys, stupid episodes of behavior...yet through it all...even after an intervention which sent him to Betty Ford...one of the staff told him before he left that he was not an alcoholic but an abuser of alcohol. What that distinction is remains lost to me but was understood by Ben. No matter. You wonder how CBS managed to produce a cohesive telecast of the Masters or any other tournament they were assigned to based on Ben's recollections. He also ran into some world travelers that he thought behaved badly. It is a "tell all" from one who is still in the dog house for telling all about his opinion of women's golf and the difference betwen the men's game and theirs. No matter that he had that just right,,,he was PC'd out and the world of golf broadcasting is the worse for it. I miss him behind the microphone, but the book goes a bit long.
All the bounces were good.......2001-12-28
Ben Wright does a superb job in taking mere golfing mortals behind the scenes of some famous, and some not so famous, tournaments to give an insight into LIFE in the golfing world. It is a page turner that had me howling with laughter as he strips bare the mystique behind both golf broadcasting and some of the peripheral characters that add to the colour of the sport. Of course in the true style that has endeared him to so many he also takes a few swipes at some brighter lights in the business of golf. Wright has an obvious deep love for the game but he does not let sentimentality get in the way of a good story. I am sure that he must have a stock of untold tales waiting to be let out of the closet and I look forward to the next installment from this very funny, very English and very lovable raconteur.
A GREAT Read.......2001-05-02
CBS, BRING THIS GUY BACK! If you want a good read that will absolutely make you CRY with laughter. This is the book for you...And you don't have to be a Golf fan to enjoy it. I always figured that stranged things happened behind the camera, but his stories will absolutely crack you up. It is definitely a MUST buy.
Intimate sharing of a life in golf.......2001-01-20
Wright is as witty and colorful as his broadcasts were. Gives an image of broadcasting which most of us aren't aware of. We sense the morals and ethics of these public individuals are different. Appreciated even more his love for the game and extreme pain the LPGA comments have brought upon him. Image is everything!
Average customer rating:
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A Walk Down the Fairway of Value Added Tax: A Practical Guide to Vat for Golf Clubs
Ian Fleming
Manufacturer: Spiramus Press
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ASIN: 1904905412 |
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