Since its first publication, Golf in the Kingdom has been recognized as a classic work on the deeper mysteries of golf--a gospel of those who suspect, or know, that golf is more than a mere pastime. A young man en route to India stops in Scotland to play at the legendary Burningbush golf club and in twenty-four hours, his life is transformed. Paired with a mysterious teacher named Shivas Irons, he is led through a round of phenomenal golf, swept into a world where extraordinary powers are unleashed in a a backswing governed by true gravity. A night of adventure and revelation follow, and lead to a glimpse of Seamus MacDuff, the holy man who haunts a ravine off Burningbush's thirteenth fairway--one they call Lucifer's Rug. Murphy's account reveals the possibilities for transcendence that resides in the human soul, and through mystic-philosopher Shivas Irons, the reader, like Murphy, becomes drawn into new worlds by this ancient and haunting game.

Michael Murphy founded the Esalen Institute (with Richard Price) in 1962, and helped initiate Esalen's Russian American Exchange Program. A graduate of Stanford University, he did further work there in philosophy and spent a year and a half at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India. He is also the author of Jacob Atabet, An End to Ordinary History, The Future of the Body, The Life We Are Given (with George Leonard), In the Zone (with Rhea A. White), and The Kingdom of Shivas Irons.