The new Shivas Irons Society website is quickly becoming the online hub for Golf Literature, much like Golf Club Atlas is the online hub for Golf Architecture. In addition to publishing The Journal -- a unique, collector-quality publication intended as a vehicle for all of the creative arts inspired by the game of golf -- the society now hosts a variety of ongoing articles and blogs written by several of its members. Their community forums are just getting started and looking for eager participants.


Streamers by Richard Lees, Shivas Irons Society

The most recent publication available on their website is Streamers - a blog authored by board member, Richard Lees. In his initial post, Richard shares his experiences at Pasatiempo as well as his introduction to Fred Shoemaker and the Shivas Irons Society. I learned from Richard's blog that he's not only an artful golfer, but quite an artful writer!

Below, I've included Richard's interpretation of Fred's words on "The Mystery of Golf Revealed." This mystery reveals that our golf swing connects us to an inner dialog, or voice. Richard shares...

"This voice" is the voice of our swing. And all we need do is listen to it.

Not dissect it. Not analyze it. Not deconstruct it. But listen to it. Be aware of it. And practice that awareness rather than struggle with the physics of all that goes into its sound.

The implications of this simple statement -- like most simple statements that seem to capture a firefly's light in a bottle -- are enormous. And endless for golfers -- just as a game which is known as "a round" is, by definition, endless.

To tap into what we already know, as opposed to insisting that "knowledge" must be imposed upon us by the world outside.

And without doing anything more than find a way to swing a club in "a plane" that already exists around us.

To be able to duplicate that sound -- of connecting to that plane -- with our own voice, produced not by understanding with the mind all the physics of air being forced across our vocal chords and shaped into groupings of words that we mutually agree to call a "language" -- but rather, by listening to the sound itself, feeling where it comes from inside us, and shaping that sound as we shape notes in air with the musical instrument that is our natural voice.

Our golf clubs striking different notes, like hammers striking different strings inside a piano.

And then to practice our awareness of striking those notes so that we can "hear" or "see" when we're "on" or "off."

Sure, it can help to look at a video of a golf swing. But the swing ultimately isn't in the video. It's in us. Better to be able to produce it from within than without.

More...

Labels: Golf Blogs, Shivas Irons Society