Straight Down the Middle: Shivas Irons, Bagger Vance, and How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Golf Swing
Straight Down the Middle: Shivas Irons, Bagger Vance, and How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Golf Swing to give it its full title is a very amusing book by journalist and keen amateur golfer Josh Karp. The book is an account of Josh Karp’s quest to achieve inner peace to improve his golf, all through the art of Zen Buddhism.
Assisted by a quirky roster of excellent practitioners of esoteric, Eastern-fueled, non-traditional golf instruction that include Feldenkrais, The Emotional Freedom Technique, Aikido, meditation, Buddhism and other practices. Karp embarks on a unique journey that takes him across United States and Scotland fairways that’s as funny as it is illuminating.
The book is written in a very inviting unstuffy way that had me wanting to keep reading on, every time I had to put it down. Along the path Karp meets with various golf masters offering alternative practices and methods to conventional golf pro teachers tapping into the links between golf and spirituality.
The book is very enjoyable and had me laughing out loud as well as practising the theories and not undertaking any further golf lessons to correct my own swing from ‘conventional’ PGA pros at my local golf clubs.
Straight Down the Middle: Shivas Irons, Bagger Vance, and How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Golf Swing is both funny and enlightening, and well worth reading for any amateur golfer who like me is frustrated by a game that he plays for relaxtion.
For more information on the autor visit www.joshkarpbooks.com.
Title: Straight Down the Middle: Shivas Irons, Bagger Vance, and How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Golf Swing
Author: Josh Karp
ISBN: 978-0-8118-6539-9
Price: $23.95
Publisher: Chronicle Books
2 comments so far
1 Pete F // Oct 9, 2010 at 9:57 pm
I love this book as I’ve really embraced Zen and golf. It’s really helped my game by getting me into the right state of mind. I’m also enjoying ‘Golf Sense’ by Roy Palmer with it’s really practical techniques – if you like Karp’s book you’ll really benefit from Palmer’s as well.
2 John The Hacker // Dec 14, 2010 at 11:13 pm
Fully agree with Pete. I have three books in my bag – this one by Karp, Zen Golf (Joe Parent) and Golf Sense (Roy Palmer) – excellent books that have changed my game beyond belief!!