Bob
I not only admit to liking the book, I actually read the whole thing! I found it a few months after my first visit to the golfing shrines of Scotland in 1978, and the book resonated with my warm and fresh memories of that 3-week journey. To me it is as good a description of what golf in Scotland was like at the grassroots level before it became known in the wider golfing world. There really were Irons' and MacIvers and Listons in those days, in just about any club, from the hidden gems to the Open venues. In fact, I'm getting so misty-eyed remembering the feelings I had when I read it, I think I'll sit down and read it again in a few weeks, when I have the time.
The latter half is a bit abstruse, but you have to go with the flow, and need drugs only if you are lacking imagination and/or a true love for the game. There is some interesting stuff about the concept of the hole and the whiteness of the ball, and the mental aspect of the game and of life. Murphy influenced Tim Galwey who wrote the only golf instruction book I ever felt to be of value, and introduced me and many other readers to Arnold Haultain, whom we all know to be the thinking man's Max Behr.
As I continue to write and think now I'm getting so mellow that it doesn't even bother me that I am agreeing with Huckaby. Be the ball, brothers.
Rich