The Legend of Bagger Vance
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The Legend of Bagger Vance is a 1995 book by Steven Pressfield (ISBN 0-380-81744-6), transporting the story of the Bhagavad Gita to the world of Georgia in 1931.
In 2000, the book was made into a film directed by Robert Redford. The explicit parallels between Pressfield's novel and the Bhagavad Gita are brought out in a book called Gita on the Green: The Mystical Tradition Behind Bagger Vance (Continuum, 2000), written by Hinduism scholar Steven Rosen (Satyaraja Dasa). Pressfield himself wrote the foreword for Rosen’s book. It was also Jack Lemmon’s final film before his death in 2001.
Promising golfer Rannulph Junuh is Savannah, Georgia's favorite son, and Adele Invergordon is his beautiful girlfriend from a rich family. But after fighting in World War I traumatizes Junuh, he returns to Georgia and lives a shadowy life as a drunk outcast outside of Savannah. Years later (circa 1930, during the Great Depression), Adele is trying to recover her family's lost fortune by opening a large golf resort, and holding an exhibition match there between Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen, the best golfers of the era, with a grand prize of $10,000. However, she needs a local participant to generate local interest, so she asks her estranged love Junuh to play.
After a contentious meeting with Adele, Junuh is greeted by a mysterious stranger while trying to hit golf balls. The stranger identifies himself as Bagger Vance, a caddy, and he coaches and trains Junuh to play in the 2 day golf match. When the match starts, Jones and Hagen each play well in their distinctive ways, but Junuh plays poorly and is far behind after the first day. But with Bagger caddying for him and giving Junuh wise advice, Junuh rediscovers his game the 2nd day and makes up some ground. On the third day he plays well enough to close the gap between Jones and Hagen and himself. During this time, Junuh and Adele become reaquainted and find their romance rekindling.
On the final day, late in the round, Junuh disregards Bagger's advice at a crucial point and after that plays poorly, until he hits in into the forest. In the forest, he has a flashback to his World War I trauma, but Bagger's words help him to deal with the trauma. After making up lost ground, Junuh has a chance to win on the final hole, but calls a penalty on himself when his ball moves while Junuh addresses it (Bobby Jones actually did this in a match of importance and knew he would lose if he called the penalty[citation needed]). Seeing from this that Junuh has grown and matured, Bagger decides Junuh doesn't need him anymore, and Bagger leaves Junuh as mysteriously as he met him. Though losing a chance to win, Junuh sinks an improbable putt to tie Jones and Hagen, the match ends in a gentlemanly tie, the three golfers shake hands with all of Savannah cheering for Junuh, and Junuh and Adele get back together.
During the match, Bagger Vance has a young assistant, Hardy Greaves, who caddies for Junuh when Bagger leaves. The beginning and end of the film features Hardy Greaves as an old man playing golf in the present day, and the movie ends with Hardy meeting Bagger Vance for the first time since Junuh's golf match.
