Now here is what we have all been longing for – the perfect blend between golf and Eastern mysticism. In The Legend of Bagger Vance the East meets the West, and that on the 18th green. Here is how it works. The ultimate goal of Eastern mysticism is oneness with the universe. The ultimate goal of golf is the perfect, (or as Bagger calls it) the authentic swing. When the two come together you’ve got it. What “you’ve got” I am not sure but whatever it is it’s yours. Not since Jonathan Livingston Seagull has the New Age movement made such inroads into the thinking of the unsuspecting. Fortunately (?) Hollywood has made a movie of this book for the nonreader.
Actually the golf drama is quite good, as is the human-interest story. But Eastern mysticism is obviously the point of the book and that is too wide a gulf to span to make this book worth reading.