Golf In The Kingdom

[Piz]

Another book with a linkish flair is - To the Linksland - by Michael Bamberger.

[Buckeyebowman]

On 12/4/2016 at 2:29 PM, Rainmaker said:

I'm definitely going to give this a read . .I recently got on this lame project and I'm spending an inordinate amount of time in hotel rooms.

I have to say, though, just from the excerpts . .A Scottish Pro golfer called Shivas Irons and his mentor is Shamus McDuff?   I thought writers were supposed to be more imaginative than that, lol.  

I'm going to write a book about a pro golfer named Scratch McBirdie and his caddy,  Cary A Bagsworth.  

I see from a later post that you did read the book. Plenty of imagination there despite the character's names, which I always took as whimsical. Not to mention the name of the golf course, "Burningbush". I don't know if you read the 25th Anniversary edition with additional comments by the author. It is some of these comments that really struck me.

Like in the notes for "The Mystery of the Hole". "In no other game is the ratio of playing field to goal so large. (Think of soccer, American football, lacrosse, basketball, billiards, bowling.) We are spread wide as we play, then brought to a tiny place."

It might seem obvious, but I've neither read, nor heard, a similar sentiment expressed anywhere else.

On 12/4/2016 at 10:57 PM, CCC said:

I did not know that there was finally a movie from this book. I have heard, for many years, that one was "in the works". But, I've never heard anything about the movie. I would watch the movie - whether good or bad. It would be difficult to 'flesh out' a movie script for this book. That was always the problem.

Yeah, a movie was made, and they made a terrible hash of it. Basically tried to turn it into a love story. Stick with the book.

I liked Golf in the Kingdom right off the rip, because when I was playing my best golf it had become a "mindless" or "thoughtless" exercise. I suppose those are poor terms to describe what I felt while on the course. It seemed as if a part of my brain shut off, and my consciousness was very quiet. But not so quiet as to disallow pertinent information.

I'd walk up to my ball, and I'd get my yardage. But what was more important was how the shot "looked" or "felt". The yardage said 6 iron, but it looked like or felt like a club more or less. I'd hit it how it looked and was successful way more times than I failed.

For those who like Kingdom, I'd suggest another book, "In Search of Burningbush" by Michael Konik. Here, the author takes his handicapped friend on a golf pilgrimage through Scotland. At one course, the Crail Golf Links, they discover a hole that eerily resembles "Lucifer's Rug" from Kingdom.

Konik even tracks down Michael Murphy and asks him about the coincidence. Murphy replies that he had never even heard of Crail, never mind played it, but the hole stood out in his mind!

[Ernest Jones]

On December 5, 2016 at 7:23 AM, ScouseJohnny said:

The movie came out in 2010, I think it disappeared fairly quickly: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1448497/

You can still get it on DVD, of course. I'd recommend picking up a cheap, used copy on ebay if you really want to see it, because, honestly, it isn't very good.

The problem isn't the acting. The cinematography is excellent - Oregon doesn't exactly stand in for the east coast of Scotland, but at least it's beautiful. No, the difficulty is that the film is utterly directionless. The book, after all has a clear narrative: he gets off the train, goes to the links, rents clubs, meets Shivas Irons, plays a round with Shivas and his student, goes to the clubhouse bar, goes to dinner with Shivas's friends, etc, etc, etc. The movie doesn't have a narrative, it's like a montage of scenes from the book, filmed and then shown in a random order, interspersed with images of the wilderness in which the links is located. If (as the movie viewer) you've read the book, you can just about piece it together, and then you'll find yourself thinking, "Why on earth did they present it like this? But if, as the movie viewer, you haven't read the book, your reaction will likely be: "What the **** is going on?" and "This is crap."

 

Bang on review. 

The movie was like a bad acid trip with belly full of fast food. 

[gatsby47]

Hi I have always enjoyed reading Golf in the Kingdom.  I think what I enjoyed most was Michael's magical evening first with Shivas and friends and later back on the course.  It is a wee bit mystical at times, and I knew no movie would ever be able to convey to a wide enough audience that it has a value for golfers.  But it renounces the modern technology now available to golfers so enrapt about lie angles and precision yardages.  Instead, you sense the way to hit and how far the distance in your mind's eye.  I don't suppose I shall ever see the movie.  Don't really need to.  I sort of always pictured Shivas as a youngish but grey Sean Connery.. lol.

I do recommend you to read it.