More than a game: Arboreal adventures

Firing off line into the forest tends to result in lost shots. It's pretty annoying when your playing partner seems to thrive on such woodland sojourns.

Fergus Bisset
By Fergus Bisset
published

Week 2 ? Kemnay

Date: 20 September

Weather: Windy, odd rain shower

Greens: Summer

Tees: Summer

Mats on fairways: No

Preferred Lies: No

Probably the best greens I?ve putted on all year: lightning fast and supremely true. Lucky for me I came back in about 10 putts or I would have recorded a cricket total. The fairways are tight and tree-lined and Cormack visited the forest on five separate occasions. He played those five holes in one under par. I visited the trees twice and played those holes in four over par. I wasn?t speaking to him by the 18th. My mood was, however, cheered greatly on the final green. Some 50 feet away with a ludicrous slope between me and the cup Paul stated he?d buy me a 12-pack of Tennents Lager if I could get down in two. Things didn?t look good when my first effort ran 25 feet past so he upped the offer to a full 24 can crate. I settled over it, concentrated as hard as ever before and rolled it straight in. Cue a ridiculously over exuberant celebration akin to Justin Leonard at Brookline in 1999. Anyone would have thought I?d just broken the course record rather than just breaking 80.

November 22: A great discovery November 17: Going cold turkeyNovember 9: A series of unfortunate eventsNovember 1: The weather turnsOctober 25: A costly exerciseOctober 18: A gritty performanceOctober 4: To pastures newSeptember 20: Arboreal adventuresSeptember 13: High hopes

Fergus Bisset
Fergus Bisset
Contributing Editor

Fergus is Golf Monthly's resident expert on the history of the game and has written extensively on that subject. He is a golf obsessive and 1-handicapper. Growing up in the North East of Scotland, golf runs through his veins and his passion for the sport was bolstered during his time at St Andrews university studying history. He went on to earn a post graduate diploma from the London School of Journalism. Fergus has worked for Golf Monthly since 2004 and has written two books on the game; "Great Golf Debates" together with Jezz Ellwood of Golf Monthly and the history section of "The Ultimate Golf Book" together with Neil Tappin , also of Golf Monthly. 

Fergus once shanked a ball from just over Granny Clark's Wynd on the 18th of the Old Course that struck the St Andrews Golf Club and rebounded into the Valley of Sin, from where he saved par. Who says there's no golfing god?

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