In Search of Burningbush: A Story of Golf, Friendship and the Meaning of Irons [Hardcover]

Michael Konik (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 26, 2004

"Few authors write as passionately about the game of golf as Michael Konik. In Search of Burningbush communicates why the greatest sport in the world has touched so many lives so deeply, including mine." --Jack Nicklaus

"Golf is a game of Spirit and spirits. This true story, which reads like good fiction, describes a journey into golf's magical realms."--Michael Murphy, author of Golf in the Kingdom and chairman & cofounder of Esalen Institute

"I thoroughly enjoyed reading Michael Konik's In Search of Burningbush. As the story of one man's quest to experience the ultimate in golf in Scotland despite all odds, it is an inspirational must-read for golf fanatics." --Ty M. Votaw, LPGA Commissioner

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

A venerable golf motif--buddies on a road trip--plays out in Konik's embellished telling of a recent pilgrimage to the sport's ancient Scottish birthplaces. Golf journalist Konik and casino card dealer Don are both low handicappers. Konik is the skeptical, analytical player; Don dares not discount the divine and is an acolyte of the metaphysical novel Golf in the Kingdom, by Michael Murphy (1972). Both duffers, naturally, suffer from a host of problems (Don, severe arthritis and a smoking habit; Konik, memories of loves lost), which are alleviated, at least for a while, by playing the game on the historic courses. Musing with craggy caddies and clubhouse raconteurs, our American pals learn that few in Scotland know Murphy's book or care about Shivas Irons' exploits with his shillelagh. Undismayed, they reenact the scene of Shivas' midnight hole-in-one and otherwise eat and drink golf for their two-week journey. The border between fact and fiction is amusingly vague here, to the enjoyable entertainment of fans of Kingdom, one of the most popular golf novels ever. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From the Back Cover

A deeply moving true-life tale of courage, wisdom, and friendship between two men united by their love of golf

Part travelogue, part meditation on the great game of golf, In Search of Burningbush is a beautifully written true-life story of an unlikely friendship between two men with nothing in common save a consuming and abiding passion for the links.

Michael is a successful young journalist, educated, traveled, and sophisticated. Don deals poker at a small Las Vegas casino, is well into middle age, and smokes a pack a day. When they meet at Binion's Horseshoe during the World Series of Poker, they talk golf and make a date to play. But when Michael first catches sight of Don limping toward the practice putting green at The Canyons course, he thinks, "Golf is the last sport this poor fellow should be playing." He might be right. Don suffers from osteogenesis imperfecta, also known as "brittle-bone disease," a condition that renders him imminently breakable--the mere grip of a firm handshake could cause a fracture. Yet he manages to play the game with grace and good humor, pro-style, soundly beating his younger opponent. It is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Since he first fell in love with the sport, Michael always wanted a "best golf buddy." And he wanted to travel with his best golf buddy to Scotland--the promised land, the sacred birthplace of the game. From that first day of playing with Don, "a hobbling train wreck of a man who plays golf as though possessed by the ghosts of Jones and Hogan and Sarazen," Michael knew in his heart that he had found the best golf buddy of his dreams and that, someday, they would play golf in Scotland. Together.

That day comes in a whirlwind two-week golfing excursion across the Kingdom of Fife. In search of the mystical course "Burningbush," made legendary by Michael Murphy's bestselling novel Golf in the Kingdom (a book that has inspired legions of devoted acolytes, Don included), the two men embark on a self-actualizing journey of the mind, body, and spirit. As Don struggles with his physical challenges, Michael struggles to keep the game--and life--in perspective. Because, as Don reminds him, in the end, it's not your final score that matters, but how you made your way along the course.

"The first tee at Royal Aberdeen Golf Club sits directly in front of a stately white clubhouse whose large picture windows afford a splendid perspective of the Grampian coast. Members enjoying the otherwise unspoiled view of the North Sea may choose to inspect the swings of visiting hackers--or turn away in horror, if necessary. As I wave a few irons to warm up, I notice several of the club's older members looking toward me and Don, trying discreetly not to stare. It must be difficult. We are, admittedly, quite a sight: both wearing floppy bucket hats of the Gilligan-meets-Jim-Colbert variety; both toting identical Ping Mantis golf bags; both playing Titleist DCI irons. Plus, I've got this all-red Tad Moore Skyrider driver, now a collector's item, which looks vaguely like a Porsche 911 painted with lurid nail polish. And Don--well, Don tends to draw looks no matter what color sticks he plays with."

--From Chapter One

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 279 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (March 26, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071435212
• ISBN-13: 978-0071435215
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #889,381 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read This Book!, June 7, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: In Search of Burningbush: A Story of Golf, Friendship and the Meaning of Irons (Hardcover)

I just finished In Search of Burningbush and felt compelled to write. The author's true voice and passion for golf come through in every chapter, and many of the passages describing the Scottish links and countryside are simply beautiful.

I was also drawn to the spiritual aspects of the author's quest as I am in a mid-life search for my "Burningbush". In Hinduism, I have read, the main thrust of the belief system is that people think they want certain things such as pleasure and worldly success. But ultimately, in this life or another, even noble life pursuits become unfulfilling. What people really want is something else - infinite being, infinite awareness, and infinite bliss. We can only get brief spatterings of true joy; we feel as though some great harmony exists in the world, then our bodily limitations take over.

Golf is like that. We feel the sensation of perfect body and soul in a golf shot, but then it is instantly extinguished as we remember the double bogey on the last hole. I wish the feeling would last forever. As I read this book, I sensed the same longing. I think what many of us are looking for is there, just past our conscious selves. When our bodies are quiet and our minds are still, the door opens for an instant. In that instant is an eternity that we simply cannot comprehend.

As I write this review, I am looking at a picture of the Old Course at St. Andrews hanging on the wall of my den. I bought the picture many years ago because it looked like a great den picture. But now, after reading In Search of Burningbush, I think something else may have drawn me to that picture - a type of "connection" I am sure Don (the main character in the book) would say. Someday I hope to play the Old Course and discover, if only for an instant, the metaphysical connection explored so beautifully in this book.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Search, May 20, 2004

By 

Mr. 30 (Milwaukee, WI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Search of Burningbush: A Story of Golf, Friendship and the Meaning of Irons (Hardcover)

If you've played a perfect round of golf, you don't need this book. If you've hit one perfect shot in your life and been satisfied never to try for another, you don't need this book.

If, however, you have ever walked off a green ready to quit the game altogether (I paid money to be here?) only to walk down a fairway two holes later wondering if you might make a run at the PGA Tour after all, then Michael Konik has written the golf book for you.

Mr. Konik's world is a world of very high highs and very low lows. Apparently, there have been "afternoons" (plural) of lovemaking and wine, nights of high-stakes poker, weeks of world travel and miles in fast cars. But there has also been divorce, betrayal, and serious heartache. He has come close perfection, he has lost it, and he is out there in search of it again.

The perfection Mr. Konik seeks this time is the ultimate pilgrimmage to the birthplace of golf with Don, the ultimate "golf buddy" Konik has been searching for since childhood. He wants the golf to be pure: he wants to walk the hallowed courses with someone who appreciates them as much as he does. But he also wants the relationship with Don to be pure, special, and deep.

If Thoreau's "mass of men" lead lives of quiet desperation, Mr. Konik is not one of them: his desperation is loud. He desperately wants Don to have a magical time. He desperately wants to have a magical time while Don is having a magical time. He charts the golf-trip itinerary in great detail, and calls on his travel-writing contacts to be sure that he and Don will have the right caddies and play the right courses. He prepares a tremendous gift to his friend Don, who would never have the chance to experience like this if it weren't for Michael.

It is what happens next that makes the book special and causes reveiwers to say it is about more than golf. Perfection, again, eludes Mr. Konik, usually in direct proportion to his effort to find it. Konik tries too hard, he realizes, and he knows it makes him insufferable as a golfing partner, let alone as a buddy. "I hate myself for it," he says.

Thus the metaphor linking golf to life is complete. Nothing is easily or permanently perfect (except, perhaps, Mr. Konik's ear for the thick dialect of the Scots, which he reproduces with laugh-out-loud accuracy). The journey, which was to have been the ultimate golf trip, has considerable highs and lows. Throughout, Mr. Konik confesses to his own imperfection and tries to understand Don's. When writers --and friends-- are that honest, we end up pulling for them to the end.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Burningbush Connects with Golfers, January 27, 2005

By 

Howard Gorney "HNG" (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Search of Burningbush: A Story of Golf, Friendship and the Meaning of Irons (Hardcover)

This book not only captures the true meaning of friendship; it defines how friendships are formed and enhanced by the great game of golf. Add Konik's deep appreciation for the Scots' gift of golf to the world and you have a work that is a great read and a must for all golfers from duffers to scratch players.