The Kingdom of Shivas Irons - Hardcover

Murphy, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0767900189 ISBN 13: 9780767900188

Publisher: Broadway, 1997

Synopsis

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" (John Updike) and "a masterpiece on the mysticism of golf" (San Francisco Chronicle).

Golf in the Kingdom 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.

About this title

Review:

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.

From the Publisher:

The long-awaited sequel to the classic tale of sport and mysticism, Golf in the Kingdom.

Acclaim for Michael Murphy:

The Kingdom of Shivas Irons:

"Michael Murphy has achieved a rare feat; he has penned a sequel that not only amplifies and extends his earlier masterpiece but creates a new vision of future possibility. The Kingdom of Shivas Irons describes a new place of mystical golf and unfolding spiritual adventure, and it could be our own kingdom. . . if we have the courage to enter it."
--James Redfield, author of The Celestine Prophecy

"A brilliant and beautiful narrative of human possibilities. Murphy has written a spell-binding tale--provocative, compelling, immensely enjoyable--of the search for a deeper order, a more profound meaning, lying just within, and just beyond our grasp. It's about golf, yes, but it's really about the possible human being, struggling to grow into its own frightening greatness."
--Ken Wilber, author of Grace and Grit, The Eye of Spirit, and A Brief History of Everything

Golf in the Kingdom:

"Murphy's book is going to alter many visions. He's written a mystical tale capable of winning a constituency. I totally believed it and loved it."
--Nancy Weber, New York Times Book Review

"Golf is of games the most mystical, the least earthbound, the one wherein the walls between us and the supernatural are rubbed thinnest. There is much wit and good will in Golf in the Kingdom."
--John Updike

"A peculiarly charming story."
--Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, New York Times

About this edition

• Publisher: Broadway
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0767900189
• ISBN 13: 9780767900188
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336