Golf in the Kingdom

Michael Murphy

Jun 2011 · Open Road Media

About this eBook

A spiritual journey, a lush travelogue, a parable of sports and philosophy—John Updike called this unique novel “a golf classic if any exists in our day.”

When an American traveler on his way to India stops to play a round on one of the most beautiful and legendary golf courses in Scotland, he doesn’t know that his game—and his life—are about to change forever. He is introduced to Shivas Irons, a mysterious golf pro whose sublime insights stick with him long after the eighteenth hole. From the first swing of the Scotsman’s club, he realizes he is in for a most extraordinary day.
 
By turns comic, existential, and semiautobiographical, Michael Murphy’s tale traces the arc of twenty-four hours, from a round of golf on the Links of Burningbush to a night fueled by whiskey, wisdom, and wandering—even a sighting of Seamus MacDuff, the holy man who haunts the hole they call Lucifer’s Rug.
 
“Murphy’s book is going to alter many visions,” The New York Times Book Review declared. More than an unforgettable approach to one of the world’s most popular sports, Golf in the Kingdom is a meditation on the power of a game to transform the self.
 

Ratings and reviews

This book is one long lecture about the occult and how Western science is missing all the metaphysical truths. There is also a tiny little bit of story in there, but it quite literally finishes around 60% into the book. Totally not worth the time I wasted on it.

This book is one long lecture about the occult and how Western science is missing all the metaphysical truths. There is also a tiny little bit of story in there, but it quite literally finishes around 60% into the book. Totally not worth the time I wasted on it.

I loved the golf part of the story, but it got a bit too zen technical for me towards the end. Great read though! 4/5 from me :)

About the author

DIVDIVBestselling author Michael Murphy (b. 1930) has been called the father of the human potential movement, one of the most influential movements in twentieth-century American culture. His bestselling book Golf in the Kingdom (1972) inspired the creation of the Shivas Irons Society, a nonprofit group dedicated to finding beauty and discovery through the game of golf, and has recently been adapted into a movie starring Malcolm McDowell (2010). His other books include Jacob Atabet (1977), An End to Ordinary History (1982), In the Zone (1995), and The Kingdom of Shivas Irons (1997). He lives in California./div/div