“… Performance under fire (in the lesser world of sport, at least) is not a function
of physical courage, but of consciousness. Of awareness.”

—The Legend of Bagger Vance

It's always nice to see the lessons of Shivas being appropriately applied to our professional and personal lives outside the realm of golf. This interesting article by a long-time Shivas Irons Society member is a perfect example. (SC)

I know from experience that it's frequently difficult, and sometimes virtually impossible, to appreciate and savor the "in-between times," particularly when you are stressed from facing multiple deadlines in a contentious piece of litigation or you are in the middle of a large, difficult task. But if you can take a moment and think back to other similar experiences in your own life, I imagine you'll be able to recall other times when you were "in between," and that will assist you with the task at hand. And for those of us who have children, let me suggest that the "in-between times" are often the best times.

In 2010 the 150th anniversary of the Open was celebrated on the venerable Old Course at St Andrews, but it was Prestwick Golf Club, located 120 miles to the west where the Open Championship was first held in 1860 (and for the first twelve Championships until 1872).  Prestwick eventually hosted 24 Opens with the last one taking place in 1925.

In the following article, first published on our website in 1997, SIS Historian Peter Shaerf  tells the interesting story of the last round of that 1925 Championship... and the effect that the constraints of space and the logistics of crowd control had on eliminating Prestwick from the Open rota, as well as the devastating consequences for runner-up Macdonald Smith —  a golfer upon whom Peter has dubbed the title of the “Greatest Player Never to Win a Major.”

In this essay Michael Murphy explores the possibility for rediscovering some of... "the numinous powers and majestic vistas of soul described by the mystics of antiquity..."

He suggests that "once you’ve stepped into golf’s magic theater, there is no telling how it will surprise you..."

Golf, it seems, is a mystery school housed in a game, a pastime with a genius for evoking the supernatural. As Shivas Irons said, "golf has a mighty past and promises a greater future." Since Golf in the Kingdom was published in 1972, I have received many letters describing extraordinary events and experiences related to golf. One of my favorites is from the woman who dreamt that the gods practice the creation of universes by playing golf. In this dream, she had risen to the place where they do this, initiating a new universe with each golf shot! Bringing their superhuman consciousness to perfect focus, they compressed the ball into the tiny point from which each universe expands. Each poor shot, it seemed, made a universe that was somehow deformed, while each good shot made a beautiful one. The better the shot, the better the universe!