I’ve been re-reading Michael Murphy’s classic book ‘Golf in the Kingdom’.
If you’re not already familiar with the book, it tells the story of a young man (presumably Murphy himself) en route to India in the late 1950’s to study philosophy and practice meditation at the ashram of Sri Aurobindo.
At the legendary ‘Burningbush’ golf club in Scotland, his life is transformed completely by a mysterious teacher named Shivas Irons who guides him through an other-worldly round of golf while imparting some of the deepest secrets of the game, including “true gravity”, the “inner swing” and finding a “solid place” to swing from.
Here’s an extract from pp 18 where Murphy sees Shivas Irons swing for the first time:
“It was the professional’s turn now…he stood addressing the ball for a few seconds, a brief address, but during that moment all his attention came to awesome focus. Like Ben Hogan, he seemed to peer into the very center of the ball and summon a secret strength. I could feel the energy gathering, feel it in my solar plexus, a powerful magnetic field drawing everything into itself – and then his swing unfurled, slower than I had anticipated after that awesome address but impacting with immense power and following through with utter grace and balance. I held my breath as the ball flew, stretching as if to hold it in the sky. It sailed 280 yards or more down the middle of the fairway – hovering there longer than any shot I had ever seen – then it landed, bouncing high toward the green”.
And what of Murphy’s own golf swing?
Shivas tells him plainly, “Ye try too hard and ye think too much…let the nothingness into yer shots”.
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