I'm not a golfing fanatic, I don't watch it on tv, but I was on the edge of my seat reading about the golf match that is played in the book.The book is not at all like the film starring Matt Damon and Will Smith as Junah and Baggar Vance respectively. The book highlights the main themes treated in the film, but it goes a lot further.Golf is a game where you play against yourself, against your mind. Golf represents the war that rages inside each one of us. Each golfer is a warrior, fighting the v...

DID YOU KNOW?The 2000 film The Legend of Bagger Vance, was loosely based on the Gita, with golf taking the place of war (though the hero has been traumatized by World War I). In the film, the Krishna figure (played by Will Smith) describes to [Ar]Junuh (Matt Damon), for whom he is the caddie (charioteer), the feeling of karma without kama (pure-action, without thought for results) as playing in the zone, a great analogy.

For any golfer, there are certain irrefutable truths. Integrity is a truth. Respect, competitiveness, focus, peace, and countless others are all integral pieces to golf's puzzle. I have had the very real privilege of knowing the game of golf- not how to play it, or the rules, but to KNOW it. I have seen what it does to me. When I am on the secluded fairway with a club in hand, the green grass speaks to me, sharing life's lessons. This is when I pray. This is when I see the world as it should be-...

First off, I like to golf. It's fun: get some sunshine, hit a few balls, make a few good shots, make a lot of bad shots, buy drinks from the golf cart girl, and grab a sandwich at the turn. Drive, curse, rough, curse, sand, curse, putt, curse, tap in. There's nothing overly complicated about it, in my opinion.What I don't like about golf is the cult around it, of which this book is trying to be an epistle. I understand that some people go all out: 90 hole weekend, trips to St. Andrew's, etc. Tha...

Inside each and every one of us is one true authentic swing... Somethin' we was born with... Somethin' that's ours and ours alone... Somethin' that can't be taught to ya or learned... Somethin' that got to be remembered... Over time the world can, rob us of that swing... It get buried inside us under all our wouldas and couldas and shouldas... Some folk even forget what their swing was like...

Golf is war. War is hell. Golf is hell? Would that the point of this novel was as simple as that transitive property! Sadly, it's not, and I was frustrated in my search for the author's elusive meaning.The novel recounts a 36-hole golf match between Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen, devised to elevate Savannah out of it's 1931 Depression-era slump. The competition takes place on Krewe Island, a stone's throw from Skidaway, a piece of land demolished in a storm during 1938 - save for the 18th hole, a...

"The Legend of Bagger Vance" by Steven Pressfield tees up a message of greater meaning and knocks a long drive down the fairway straight to the pin. The book, which is exquisitely written, discusses the fact that golf is a "higher plane" activity. It makes the point golf is a sport of the gods. It brings you closer to the divine. It is the only sport where the golfer has to judge himself. If he makes an error, the onus is on him to call the penalty. It is a sport where you become one with nature...

'It's not about golf,' said the student to this teacher. The Legend of Bagger Vance: A Novel of Golf and the Game of Life was on the shelf in my classroom. I hadn't read it yet and was discussing it with one of my students who was looking for something to read. I had suggested it to him since he is a fan of many sports. He said he'd already read it. I told him I had not, since I am not a fan of golf. He looked at me like I was a small, silly child and said, 'It's not about golf.'At that momen...

I've loved the movie and recently found a copy of the book so I was looking forward to reading this. The book, as always, tells of details that would never make it in a movie and those details add a certain level of enjoyment but the book is much more of a magical realism/spiritual quest story than the movie.The movie was lovingly adapted from the book and that attention shows in a first rate film. This is one of those rare cases where I can't decide if I like the movie or the book version bette...

This text either awakened or reawakened something in me; I am not sure which. It reminded me - made me remember. Read it.

I haven’t seen the movie bc I’m not that interested in golf. I have a basic understanding of the game, the discipline, the integrity, the physicality, the dedication that each player has, to be a great golfer. I respect that. But I’m not a fan.So now, why did I read this book? A priest suggested the movie during a homily on writing the gospel of our own lives. I opted for the book.Based on a true story plus presenting Bagger Vance as the personification of a Hindu god, the story runs on. Lots &

Steven Pressfield is a master at his craft. The Legend of Bagger Vance is easily in my top 10 favorite novels of all time. My question is how could a book this good, be made into such a mediocre movie? Especially when it's starring Will Smith, Matt Damon, and Charlize Theron. I think it was the difference in tone. The book was much deeper and asked tough questions like what can we do in order to uncover and discover our true and authentic self. The movie was lighter in tone and didn't spend enou...

Excellent work by Steven Pressfield. Not what you'd expect from a sports book—Pressfield puts a lot of supernatural content, some with Greek influence and other from the Bible, that makes for a mystical, intriguing journey. One of the key concepts is that each person has their one true, authentic swing, which is a metaphor for created purpose, design. There's a discussion about how one finds that swing—discipline, forgetfulness, practice, etc. Much of the same concepts and thoughts as Pressfield...

Good story and good writing. I liked the movie. This book was worth reading because there is a ton of content involving the magical part of the story when Bagger shows Junah "the field." There was good imagery there from the author, but it was a bit too much. The last few chapters that covered the golf match was very detailed, almost too much again. The back story happening in the present time with Hardy and Michael was not really needed in my opinion either. Still these are little picky things....

Like most I learned about this story after having watched the Robert Redford directed film which to be frank, left me underwhelmed. However when I recently added it back into my Netflix list and watched again, something told me to read the book. To say I was blown away would be a vast understatement nor did I expect something like this from Pressfield. Finding our "Authentic Swing" can be the most fulfilling journey we take; you do not need to be a golfer to embrace the message shared either. Dr...

“Life is action. Even choosing not to act, we act. We cannot do otherwise. Therefore act with vigor.” Though better remembered for the movie starring Will Smith and Matt Damon, The Legend of Bagger Vance was first a novel—and not a very well-known one at that. Pressfield took the basic outline of the Bhagavad Gita and applied it to a golf story. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that there are plenty of supernatural elements.The year is 1931. Rannulph Junah (or R. Junah; Arjuna is the protagoni...

This just didn't work for me. Pressfield is a talented wordsmith, but if I had never seen the film, I would have been thoroughly lost and confused. Most of the book is the replay of a fictional golf match, so anyone who loves the game and understands all the mechanics of the sport will be hugely entertained. This is quite cerebral and there is much to ponder here about discovering our true authentic self. There are references to the holiness of sport and some fascinating dialogue about the "myst...

I first saw The Legend of Bagger Vance movie when I was a young boy. Every subsequent viewing has moved me just as much as the first time, if not more. The movie has many notable differences, though it isn't better or worse than the book. Just different. What makes Pressfield's story so great is that Bagger's wisdom can be applied to any profession or vocation. Absolutely anything at all. For me, every word Bagger speaks (allowing for changes in terminology, of course) fits with how I perceive w...

love it

Not just a "game". This journey is much more serious than that...I kind of backed into reading The Legend of Bagger Vance. I was familiar with the adaptation of the story from watching the movie (which I liked), but I started reading Steven Pressfield’s books because I was trying to improve myself as an author – and I was very interested in how he has been so successful – so I started with The Authentic Swing: Notes from the Writing of a First Novel…which, by the way, knocked my socks off (see m...