The Legend of Bagger Vance [Unabridged] (Audio CD)

Well, actually, it's a lot easier than that. The book falls considerably short of what the movie became under the masterful touch of Robert Redford. Like his work on THE HORSE WHISPERER, Redford was able to make a movie that improves upon a book and get to the nugget of a great story, leaving out stuff that seems sometimes to ooze from the imagination of an author who gets too caught up in and excited about the supposed profoundness of his own story.

In the end that's the real problem with THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE (the book). Pressfield, obviously an individual who feels much for the game of golf and its parallels with life, gets sucked into the out-of-control upward spiral of his awe for the game. He likely collapsed after writing several of the more revved up passages. It wasn't enough to call golf a game, Pressfield had to take the next step and try to build a case for golf as the basis for a lost and resurgent religion. Bagger Vance as a wild pagan god of war? Junah as a bizarre victim of what can best be described as Jack Nicklaus on a bummer trip? The golf swing--the Authentic Swing--as an essential component of and precursor to achieving a peaceful and happy existence? All way too weird and ethereal for me!

But there are many redeeming factors to this book. Read chapter 11 with its descriptions of the golf swing as a metaphor. Read chapter 12 with its descriptions of the game in comparison to other sports and the sheer difficulty of the game. Read chapter 16 with its wonderful wordsmithing about the importance of a good grip, more on the game's difficulty and the individual nature of golf competition. Finally, the beginning paragraphs of chapter 20 speak briefly, but eloquently, about the need for a golfer to be keenly aware of the clubhead and the power that comes in the golf swing from a deliberately wide swing arc. Other than these references you are on your own.

Rent of buy the movie and enjoy its simple but profound appreciation for golf as probably the greatest game ever devised by man and leave most of the book to the arena of too much information or, perhaps, to too much imagination.