Amazon.com
Having toured The Road Less Traveled in previous bestsellers, psychiatrist and self-help guru Peck finally sets out on the cartpath. His destination? A journey into the mysteries of the royal and ancient game. Given the tenor of his earlier work, it's surprising he took so long to take aim at this particularly pilgrim-filled target area.
Peck, a golfer since his army days in the '60s, fairly and fittingly uses the game as a metaphor for spiritual growth. Dividing his book into 18 holes with titles like Civility, Human Nature, The Invisible, Deftness (and, for good measure, a 19th called Closure), he navigates his course prudently and self-referentially with a bag full of mysticism, religion, and psychology, and acquits himself with a safe par performance. Nothing particularly dangerous or spectacular emerges from his thinking about the game. Instead, he puts a New Age spin on it--"Golf is probably the most nonlinear pastime on the face of the earth"; "A day of golf may seem like a personal holiday ... but it is hardly a holy day"; "I do believe that golf can be a wonderful spiritual path of growth toward God, but only if one chooses to use it as such"--on the roads already well traveled by such masterful analysts of golf's raptures and ridicules as Harvey Penick, Michael Murphy, Jim Flick, Tommy Armour, Bobby Jones, and Bob Rotella. Peck, of course, is right about golf being a spiritual journey; it's an inner game of personal demons that demands its players to get as much of a grip on themselves as on their clubs. The bogey on his scorecard is that those who play golf already know this. --Jeff Silverman
From Publishers Weekly
The author of the phenomenally popular The Road Less Traveled brings his down-to-earth blend of psychology and spirituality to the well-trod paths of the fairway. Golf serves Peck as a metaphor for life, and he uses the game to urge readers to strive to do well but not to be concerned about their score, to be attentive of life's hazards but not to be scared of them. As Peck describes how golf is so meaningful to his life, however, he loses sight of the essence of the gameAthe joy of play and success within the boundaries of the rules and the course. To anyone who has golfed more than once, reading this book will be like being stuck playing a round with a septuagenarian short hitter. Peck's book is for Peck fans, not golf fansAor fans of good golf books. What Peck doesn't capture is the elation of hitting the perfect shot, the exhilaration of seeing perfection (even when, as is usually the case, it's somebody else's perfection). For such joys and a sense of how golf fits into the fabric of life, readers will do better to turn to Harvey Penick or Steven Pressfield's inspirational golf novel, The Legend of Bagger Vance. Major ad/promo. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Golf is a source of spiritual growth and inspiration for Peck (The Road Less Traveled), so he guides listeners along his own imaginary golf course to explain how the game can become a spiritual discipline. Peck has a pleasant voice and reads his own text in a clear, convincing style. He walks listeners through a round of golf that focuses on the game's physical challenges for the first nine holes and emphasizes the psychospiritual challenges of the game on the back nine. Methodically plodding across a fantasy course may not appeal to the nongolfer and may sound simplistic to an avid practitioner, but Peck offers a thoughtful way to discuss intriguing topics such as anger, humility, practice, and paradox. He also doesn't forget the golfer's mantra of "relax, swing easy, keep your head down, and follow through." This should be a popular title for any spirituality or self-help collection.-Susan Dunman, Murray State Univ., KY Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
M. Scott Peck, renowned author of The Road Less Traveled, reveals how the game of golf has taught him -- and can teach you -- some of life's most important lessons. Whether you're a master, a beginner, or know nothing about golf and couldn't care less about it, by playing side by side with Dr. Peck on an imaginary course of his own design, you'll come to learn the rich spiritual truths the game holds. This program goes far beyond mechanics to explore deeper issues -- ways of successfully managing emotional, psychological, and even spiritual aspects of this most wonderful, maddening, deflating, and inspiring game.
Here are some of the many gifts from Golf and the Spirit: appreciating that life is not linear; learning to live with anger; accepting the gift of humility; learning how to benefit from teachers and how to change deep-seated behaviors; appreciating that in weakness there is strength, and realizing that to experience the blessings of golf and life fully, one must accept the divinity that underlies all things.
Golf and the Spirit makes a unique and lasting contribution to the literature of golf and life. It is a program that goes beyond the body to address the heart and soul of the game, and will thereby transform your life -- on and off the fairway.
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