A new world record has been set after a golfer completed a 1,250-mile hole for charity in Mongolia.
The thought of a 600-yard par-5 is enough to send shivers down the backs of most amateur golfers, but remember the name of Adam Rolston, because he is the man who completed a 1,250-mile hole and entered the record books for the longest golf hole ever played.
Rolston is actually a 28-year-old former rugby player from Northern Ireland who represented Hong Kong on the international stage. But he took up the challenge and raised more than $20,000 for charity in the shape of the Laureus Sport for Good and the South African Golf Development Board.
His epic challenge, which had its own Twitter handle @TheLongestHole as well as an official website, took more than two and a half months—80 days to be exact—to complete as it took Rolston through the heart of Mongolia to the only golf course in the country.
Rolston started out at 1am on June 29 from the base camp of Khuiten Peak, the highest and most western point in Mongolia. He finished on an actual golf course when he putted his 20,093 and last shot from seven feet on the 18th green at Mt Bogd Golf Club in Ulaanbaatar, the capital city.
Rolston tweeted a video of the final shot from the @TheLongestHole account, writing: “Nailing a slippery 7 foot downhill putt to break 20,094 and bring The Longest Hole to a close!!”
He had, however, set the par score as 14,000 so finished more than 6,000 shots over par.
A record-breaking journey
Completing the epic journey along with his caddie Ron Rutland, a rugby friend from South Africa, Rolston averaged 250 shots per day from all sorts of lies, firing shots across some of the most scenic places imaginable. He estimates losing less than 150 golf balls having started out with 400 at the beginning of the challenge.
The 20,093 shots took Rutland across some of the toughest terrain, across hills, rivers, swamps and the Gobi desert, covering 2,011km of Mongolia in the process. A stray dog even followed the golfers for around 1,500km of the journey.
“This has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I’m in awe of the fact we’ve done it. We have had dozens of people telling us we were mad or crazy,” Rolston told The Daily Telegraph.
“It’s been awesome and it’s been tough. You can relate it to rugby, you don’t enjoy every minute of it but when you look back on things you enjoy the tough things you do in life.
“I definitely want to keep playing when I get back. I’ve been super-pumped about playing golf every day. I might hit fewer balls when I get back, but I will still be addicted to the game as much as I ever have been.”
Rutland is no stranger to charity fundraising initiatives having previously cycled through every country in Africa before arriving to watch South Africa in the Rugby World Cup. But, along with Rolston, he is now a world record holder.
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