dam Rolston’s journey
had taken him across
frozen rivers, up and over
glaciers and into the
40-degree heat of the
Gobi Desert. Along the
way, he had lost 135 golf balls, ridden a camel
and inadvertently adopted a dog. Everything
had been leading to this moment: A seven-
foot putt on the 18th green at Mt Bogd Golf
Club in Mongolia. Watched by 200
spectators, including his friends and family
who had flown over from Hong Kong, Rolston
sent his bruised and battered ball crashing
into the hole to enter the Guinness World
Record books. It had taken him 80 days and
20,093 shots – just the 6,093 over par – to
complete the longest hole in golf.
Accompanied by his ‘caddie’ and old rugby
friend Ron Rutland, Rolston had achievedwhat many thought was impossible. “I had
doubters,” admits the former Hong Kong
rugby international. “But then it’s always
good to prove people wrong. It was physically
the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I had never
walked that far in my life. It was extremely
hard, but so satisfying at the end, especially
when I managed to two putt from 50 feet. I
hadn’t putted in 12 weeks and I swear every
single seven-foot downhill putt that I’ve had in
my life I’ve missed. I’m never going to
experience winning the British Masters like
Paul Dunne did, but it felt like I had created a
winning moment for myself.”
For Rutland, the feeling of ecstasy and
relief was one he had experienced before
after spending 27 months cycling 26,700
miles. “I left Cape Town in June 2013 and
cycled to the 2015 Rugby World Cup in the
UK via every country in Africa and mostcountries in Europe,” he says. “That was the
first big adventure of my life and Adam had
obviously heard about what I’d done. When
we reconnected in Kenya last August, that’s
when he told me he wanted to do a golf
adventure.”
“I’ve always looked at adventurers and
thought, I could do something like that,”
explains Rolston, who plays off scratch. “I had
spent three-and-a-half years playing
professional rugby and didn’t achieve what I
wanted to achieve. I took up golf when I was
16 and never got the chance to play
professionally. So, I think the grit and
determination I showed playing rugby and
the potential skill I showed playing golf made
me think that an expedition was built for me.”
What started out as an idea over coffee
quickly turned into a reality, and within eight
months Rolston and Rutland were on a recceA
‘It was physically
the hardest thing
I’ve ever done’
LONGEST HOLE
66 ISSUE 367 TODAYSGOLFER.CO.UK