''Golf in the Kingdom'' is a 1971 novel by

Michael Murphy Michael, Mick, or Mike Murphy may refer to: Artists and entertainers * Michael Murphy (actor) (born 1938), American actor * Mike Murphy (musician) (1946–2006), American drummer for the Bee Gees and Chicago * Michael Bryan Murphy, lead singer o ...

. It has sold over a million copies and been translated into 19 languages. ''Golf in the Kingdom'' tells the story of Michael Murphy, a young traveler who accidentally stumbles on a mystical golfing expert while in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. Murphy was inspired to write the book after his time at the

Sri Aurobindo Ashram The Sri Aurobindo Ashram is a spiritual community (ashram) located in Pondicherry, in the Indian territory of Puducherry. The ashram grew out of a small community of disciples who had gathered around Sri Aurobindo after he retired from ...

. He became interested in the similarities between descriptions of successful athletes and people who said they had achieved the state of

Zen Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...

. The novel spawned the Shivas Irons Society, an organization whose members combine golf and

meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally cal ...

. In 1997, Murphy wrote a sequel, ''The Kingdom of Shivas Irons''. ''Golf in the Kingdom'' is referenced in the fifth episode of season one of the television series

Franklin & Bash ''Franklin & Bash'' is an American comedy-drama television series created by Kevin Falls and Bill Chais. The series starred Breckin Meyer and Mark-Paul Gosselaar as unconventional lawyers and longtime friends. A Turner Broadcasting executive refe ...

Plot

While on

layover 250px, Layover for buses at LACMTA's Warner Center Transit Hub, Los Angeles ">Los_Angeles.html" ;"title="Warner Center Transit Hub, Los Angeles">Warner Center Transit Hub, Los Angeles In scheduled transportation, a layover (also waypoint, way ...

on his way to an

ashram An ashram ( sa, आश्रम, ) is a spiritual hermitage or a monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or a ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, Michael Murphy decides to play a round of golf at Burningbush, a famous local golf course. There he meets the mysterious and charismatic golf pro Shivas Irons who over a 24-hour period teaches him about golf and spirituality.

Film version

Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series '' Rawhide'', he rose to international fame with his role as the "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's "''Doll ...

purchased the rights to the book, but abandoned the project after writing several unfinished scripts in the early 1990s. In 2009, Murphy, producer Mindy Affrime and director Susan Streitfeld began filming their version of the book. Shot on location at

Bandon Dunes Golf Resort Bandon Dunes Golf Resort is a complex of five links and a par-3 golf course on the West Coast of the United States, located alongside the Pacific Ocean in southwest Oregon, just north of the city of Bandon. Courses The first course at the ...

, it stars

Mason Gamble Mason Gamble (born January 16, 1986) is an American former actor. He is mostly famous for his interpretation of Dennis Mitchell in the 1993 film '' Dennis the Menace'', selected over an estimate of 20,000 children who had auditioned. He played ...

Julian Sands Julian Richard Morley Sands''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, ...

David O'Hara David Patrick O'Hara (born 9 July 1965) is a Scottish stage and character actor. A graduate of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, he is best known to audiences for his numerous supporting roles in high-profile films; includi ...

Malcolm McDowell Malcolm McDowell (born Malcolm John Taylor; 13 June 1943) is a British actor, producer, and television presenter. He is best known for portraying Alex DeLarge in ''A Clockwork Orange.'' He was born in the Horsforth suburb of Leeds and raised in ...

and

Frances Fisher Frances Louise Fisher (born May 11, 1952) is a British-born American actress. She began her career in theatre and later starred as record executive Suzette 'Red' Saxon in the CBS daytime soap opera ''The Guiding Light'' (1985). In film, she is ...

and premiered in New York City on July 29, 2011. Review aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

rates the film version 13 out of 100, indicating "overwhelming dislike", with all five critic reviews being negative.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 1448497 1971 American novels Books about spirituality American sports novels Novels about golf Novels set in Scotland American novels adapted into films

Plot

Film version

See also

References

Further reading

External links