The biennial Golf Monthly Rules of Golf photoshoot

A little look behind the scenes on the biennial Golf Monthly Rules of Golf photoshoot, this year at the wonderful Gleneagles Resort in Perthshire

On Monday April 20^th, photographer Kenny Smith, R&A Rules of Golf assistant director, Kevin Barker and GM’s Fergus Bisset and Jeremy Ellwood converged on the PGA Centenary Ryder Cup course at the fabulous Gleneagles Resort for our latest Rules of Golf photoshoot.

We started out in a bunker by the 2^nd green acting out a number of bunker-related Rules scenarios, among them this ‘falling as you make your way into the bunker’ shot, acted out superbly by Fergus.

We then took advantage of the gorse and many trees on the estate to work through a series of scenarios, some involving wanton rule-breaking on the part of the ‘models’ including this dodgy branch-bending effort from Fergus.

Kenny went beyond the call of duty, backing himself selflessly further and further into a gorse bush for one particular shot, while I suffered the indignity of my ball getting stuck in a pine tree 5ft up in the air in another unfortunate ‘out on the course’ incident.

Later in the day we moved to the 16^th hole where so much drama was played out in the Ryder Cup, including Martin Kaymer’s chip-in, which sparked a rare display of out-and-out emotion from the German.

Here we re-enacted Craig Stadler’s famous kneeling on a towel Rules breach before heading on up closer to the green where both water and out of bounds lie in wait.

Fergus grappled manfully with an out of bounds post which stood about 18ins tall on the course, but was actually about four and half feet long when we removed it (against the Rules, of course!)

Meanwhile, I removed all shades of light or pastel clothing to attempt a possibly unwise recovery from the pond. Inevitably, there were calls for a second take on this shot with a request to generate more of a splash if possible.

Look out for these shots and more in the magazine over the course of the next couple of years!