WATFORD, ENGLAND | Michael Murphy’s seminal book, “Golf in the Kingdom,” was published more than a half century ago and many in golf were awed by it. It tells the story of a man, the narrator, thought to be Murphy himself, who, while in Scotland, accidentally stumbles on Shivas Irons, a golf professional, philosopher and mystic.
One passage describing the narrator playing the Old Course at St Andrews when a haar (an often chilly fog) set in was so vivid that when I played the Old Course a few weeks after reading “Golf in the Kingdom” I found myself shivering when I reached the same point on the course.
Murphy’s book sold more than 1 million copies and was translated into 19 languages and even now, all these years later, you know a lot about a person who says they have read and loved it.
It would be good to think that TaylorMade had the title of Murphy’s book in mind when the brand opened The Kingdom in Carlsbad, California, and offered a bespoke fitting service for golf clubs. This was followed later by a second U.S. location, at Reynolds Lake Oconee in Georgia, and now one has opened at The Grove, a luxurious golf resort in Watford, perhaps 20 miles north of London.
I began in the putting studio where four cameras in the ceiling contributed to a thorough analysis of my putting stroke. Data revealed that my putts had a launch angle of 1.5 and were hit with 22 rpms of backspin. What I needed apparently was topspin not backspin.
Lee handed me a new putter with what resembled a grey pea on the toe and another on the heel of the putter. These peas were reflecting dots picked up by cameras and they filmed the movement of the putter, its path and spin being displayed on a nearby machine. I fared better with this putter. The clubface was only marginally closed at impact and the ball had more topspin as it rolled.
Soon though my back started to creak. On a warm and sunny October afternoon it was a pleasure to move outside to one of the three fitting bays at the end of a 320-yard driving range, where I could hit from a 600-square-metre teeing area.
“The Grove was a natural fit … not only is it in a perfect location just outside our biggest city in our biggest European market but it boasts exceptional facilities …” said David Silvers, managing director of TaylorMade’s Europe, Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions, said, adding: “Tiger Woods won a World Golf Championship event here [the 2006 WGC-American Express Championship] and they have hosted the British Masters.”
Murphy’s book gave an insight into the spiritual side of golf, and led to the formation of the Shivas Irons Society, whose members combine golf and meditation. TaylorMade’s Kingdom uses extensive analytical data to help you choose clubs, whether woods, irons or putter, that are better suited to your golf swing so you can hit the ball more solidly and score better.
Lee Martindale, a tall, friendly-faced former pro who is a Kingdom Experience master fitter, and Oliver Jennings, the Kingdom Experience and fitting manager, are two of the men who work there. Putting yourself into their hands for three or four hours while they examine your clubs and watch you swing and putt with cameras whirring to determine your swing speed, launch angle, ball flight and direction of face at impact could give you sensory overload. It is a bit like combining a visit to a doctor who has a good bedside manner and a tailor who is running up a suit for you.
“We are not here to instruct, we are here to fit. Our job is to match a golfer’s shaft to their swing so they hit the centre of the clubface more often. Then we use different heads and lofts to change the launch angle and speed.” – Lee Martindale
As I warmed up I joked that it was the Indian not the arrow that was at fault in my rickety golf game. It turned out not to be the case.
“We are not here to instruct, we are here to fit,” Lee said. “Our job is to match a golfer’s shaft to their swing so they hit the centre of the clubface more often. Then we use different heads and lofts to change the launch angle and speed.”
There is no shortage of analytical equipment to help them do this and it’s all top of the range – Trackman, Foresight, GEARS, Quintic.
I hit a few drives with my own 10-year-old driver, revealing my swing speed to be 80 mph. All were low, squirrely and went left, as good representations as any of the sort of depressing drives I hit when playing at my club.
It didn’t take long for Lee to pinpoint some issues with my driver. It had 10.5 degrees of loft, which was too steep for me, had an 8-degree launch angle and generated 1345 rpms of backspin. Also, it was too heavy for me, perhaps by as much as 15 grams, and the shaft was not flexible enough for someone of my swing speed. Little wonder my driver was the least favoured club in my bag.
“Spin is your friend,” Lee said as he gave me a more appropriate club to try out. “With spin you get height and that height enables the ball to go further.” The difference was striking. My first few shots with the new driver were high and straight, if not particularly long.
He then handed me a 5-wood, which I would never have considered using. “Your existing 3-wood is 15 degrees,” he said. “This is 17 degrees, but you will hit the ball much higher and that will give you the same distance if not more.” Sure enough, the first few 5-woods I hit had average carries of almost exactly the same as my 3-wood. They went much higher too. I left the teeing area in high spirits, cheered by the improvement I had seen in my striking and ball flight.
As Lee drove me in a six-seater buggy back to my car, loaded my clubs into the boot and wished me well, I reflected on the experience.
I remembered my days playing squash more than 50 years ago and how precise I had been in selecting a racket that fitted comfortably into my hand, did not have too thick a towelling grip and most of all, had strings made from natural, not synthetic gut. If strings like that were good enough for my friend Jonah Barrington, who was world champion, then they were certainly good enough for me.
On that basis I found myself wondering why on earth I continued to use a driver that was so ill-suited to my swing and thus made a difficult game even harder. How silly can you be, I thought.
So was my sunny afternoon at The Kingdom at The Grove hotel in Watford worth it? Of course it was. As was reading “Golf in the Kingdom” 50 years ago.