pictures of his swollen ankle to his doctor in
Hong Kong for advice while Rolston updated
their story on social media. They had plenty
of time to do so, as it was too hot to even
consider playing golf after 9am with
temperatures spiking to 40 degrees in the
desert. “We were waking up at 3.30am, just
when it was light enough to hit a ball 100
yards into the distance,” recalls Rolston. “We’d
play until 9am, lie under tarpaulin on our
camping mattresses for between six or eight
hours and then get up and play until dark.”
Once they re-entered civilisation, they
would often leave the dog to guard the tent
from wolves and 700lb goats and walk to
nearby villages, where they drank Russian
vodka with locals and taught them how to
play golf. “That’s probably the one thing we’ve
taken from the journey; how sport transcends
language and brings people together,” says
Rolston. “We took golf out of its normal
environment and took it to a place that has
never seen it before. They all gave it a crack
and were pretty good at it.”
In return for the lessons, Rolston and
Rutland were invited into their “gers”
(nomadic tents) and presented with meals.
“We had a magic letter which explained who
we were and what we were doing,” explains
Rutland. “We used Google translator to
translate it into Mongolian and Kazakh – the
two main languages. But it almost became
embarrassing trying to explain to them that I
didn’t eat meat or dairy. The whole concept
of being a vegetarian was unheard of in their
culture. So, I ended up losing 13 or 14 kilos
while Adam took one for the team and drank
the fermented horse’s milk.”
Not content with living off two-minute
noodles and local delicacies, Rolston tried to
source his own food by fishing in the
surrounding rivers. “He was so adamant he
was going to catch a fish,” laughs Rutland.
“He tried every bit of water and the one day
when he caught three fish... well, the joy on
his face was incredible. You would have
thought he’d won the lottery.” “I didn’t even
have a proper rod,” adds Rolston. “It was like
a pole with fishing wire tied to the end.
Honestly, it probably ranks in the top five
moments of my life.”
As they neared the finish line on the 18th
green at Mt Bogd Golf Club in Ulaanbaatar,
they were joined by friends and family for the
final 15 miles and played the last 500 metres
dressed in traditional Mongolian robes. “Westarted out as golfers and finished as
Mongolians – that was a nice way to end it I
thought,” says Rolston. “I ended up taking just
over 20,000 shots and we raised $20,000, so
it worked out at around a dollar a shot. We set
the par at 14,000 and based it on me hitting
full 8-irons across the country, which was a bit
stupid. We didn’t really factor in the ball finding
a muddy lie or a rocky crevice, so I was 6,093
shots over par! But apart from that, there’s
nothing I regret from the trip at all. There were
times when we were naive in what we were
trying to accomplish at the beginning, but we
knuckled down and got it done.”
“When we started, I don’t think people
believed in our dream,” suspects Rutland. “There
were times when we thought where the hell is
the fun in this. It was the hardest thing I’ve done
in my life. I’m still a bit of a wreck even now. But
we are both stubborn people and, barring a
broken leg, Adam and I made up our mind that
we were going to do it. The last time we’d seen
the golf course it was brown, but when we
arrived, it was in its green glory and there were
so many people waiting for us, cheering us on.
It was a real fairytale ending and the fact we
were doing it for charity gave the journey an
extra sense of purpose and meaning.”Uphill struggle
The duo clocked up 2,000km
with their furry friend in tow.Support team
Ta y l o r M a d e s u p p l i e d t h e
clubs and 400 golf balls.Now that’s a water hazard!
Rolston and Rutland had to
cross more than 100 rivers.TODAYSGOLFER.CO.UK ISSUE 367 69