Book Review – Golf on the Rocks by Gary Sutherland

After his father passes away, the author of Golf on the Rocks acquires his dad’s putter and embarks on a voyage to play 18 rounds of golf on 18 Scottish islands to honour his ship captain’s father

This is golf in the raw, very far from St Andrews playing in Harris’ hail, in remote Askernish and Arran sunshine. He takes the bus and rides ferries with his good friend Noble Brian (Brian Noble) and later in his journey, the BFG (big Fraser guy)

His old course is Hopeman and he discusses the Prieshach, the 12th hole and its signature one. Turns out that this par 3 is the 1999 Open Championship Paul Lawrie’s favourite

He places many idiosyncratic golf courses like the only 13 hole course in Britain, Port Bannatyne, the 12 hole Shiskine course on Arran that he loves

He finds out the hard way that there is not a golf course on North Uist, that midges can drive golfers crazy

Harris is breathtakingly beautiful and home to Harris tweed and Askernish has recently been redone on South Uist in the Outer Hebrides to be like the original Old Tom Morris design and offers the most amazing and pure golfing experiences. It also resides in the heartland of Gaelic culture

He plays Benbeculat that has an honesty box to put your money in for green fees and the clubhouse was entrusted for them to use by themselves

Barra has a scorecard that states that every green is protected by electric fences and are not be touched. The greens are square and cows lazily hang around on the fairway

He always wanted to finish his adventure at Machrie Golf Course on Islay. It reminded him of his visit to see his granny 20 years before while he was a student at Aberdeen. The course offered sheep and goats and cow shite on the green. The course carried the drama like Askernish but was more pristine