Oregon coast doubles for Scotland’s famed links

Published 11:26 pm Sunday, May 10, 2009

BANDON, Ore. — Frequently featured on golf magazine covers and television shows, Bandon Dunes is now about to make its big screen debut.

Bandon Dunes Resort’s four courses provide the setting for much of the motion picture “Golf in the Kingdom,” wrapping up filming here. Other scenes were shot in and around the town of Bandon.

The movie is based upon Michael Murphy’s mystical tale of golf and self discovery, set in Scotland in the 1950s. “Golf in the Kingdom” is the bestselling golf fiction book of all time, with more than 1 million copies sold since it was published in 1972.

Murphy’s story involves a young American philosophy student headed to India, where he hopes to find enlightenment studying at an ashram. A travel delay affords him time to stop and play one last round of golf at the fabled (and fictitious) Burningbush Golf Course in the kingdom of Fife.

There the young man links up with golf teacher Shivas Irons, a guru in his own right. What he learns from Irons on and off the course in just 24 hours changes his life forever.

Bandon Dunes has been synonymous with “Scottish-stye links golf” since the first course opened in 1999. The recent opening of 10 holes on Old Macdonald, the resort’s fourth course swaddled in gorse — a bush ablaze with yellow — added to the Scottish texture of the place.

After playing Bandon Dunes, many a golfer has come away sounding like he’d had a quasi-spiritual experience out on those wind-blown links.

No wonder producer Mindy Affrime chose this as the locale for her film. “No one will know it’s not Scotland,” Affrime said, even though the movie “is like a travelogue for the Oregon Coast.”

While the story revolves around golf, “Golf in the Kingdom” is “not really about golf,” Affrime said. “It’s more about the meaning of life.”

In other words, golf is to “Kingdom” what the motorcycle is to “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” — a metaphorical vehicle.

And Murphy, who collaborated on the screenplay with director Susan Streitfeld, says this particular golf location is ideal — maybe even better than the real Scottish courses.

“These golf courses here are the most authentic and most beautiful Scottish links in the United States,” Murphy told an interviewer from KCBY-TV during a break in production. “This has a chance to be the most beautiful golf movie ever made.”

“Golf in the Kingdom” is a loosely autobiographical tale. An avid golfer, Murphy grew up playing at Pebble Beach. As a sophomore at Stanford University, he headed to India to study under a yogi in an ashram. Six years later, “the book literally fell out of my head as if I had channeled it,” he told one interviewer.

Actor Clint Eastwood owned the movie rights to “Golf in the Kingdom” for many years and talked of wanting Sean Connery to star in it.

But with no sex, no violence and no sentimental ending, the script never got the green light from a major studio. Murphy and Affrime re-acquired the film rights from Warner Bros. last year.

Bandon Dunes owner Mike Keiser is among the investors in the film, according to Hank Hickox, general manager of Bandon Dunes Golf Resort. As “part of our contribution to the movie,” Hickox said, the resort is providing canteen services and housing for the cast and crew.

The Murphy book “has a special meaning in our format of golf,” which involves oceanside, sand-dune, ­walking-only courses and a “focus on the origins of golf,” Hickox said.

Affrime declined to discuss the budget for the production, which has a cast of 10 and a crew of 35. However, one golf blog reported that budget to be about $3 million.

Principal actors are all from Great Britain, with the extras recruited locally.

David O’Hara (who appeared in “Braveheart” and “The Departed”) plays Shivas Irons. Mason Gamble (“Rushmore” and “Dennis the Menace”) is the young Michael Murphy.

Affrime said filming was scheduled to wrap up May 9. She hopes to release the movie in 2010.