Robert Bicknell looks at some golfers that are so crazy they’re perfect.

OK, as a club manager/director of golf, I have hosted thousands of tournaments over the last 36 years, and I have seen many scores which would be better suited for a Basketball game…

But c’mon, 6,093 over par?

To be fair, par was an arbitrary number that Adam Rolston and his caddy, Run Rutland, came up with when they started out on their journey to play “the longest golf hole in the world. They originally thought it would be 14,000 shots.

Not even close… it was par 20,093…

When the hell do you even say to people when they ask what you shot? When they ask how you did it, do you grin and claim it was easy… you missed the putt for 20,092?

It took these two adventurous crazies 80 days to play this single 2,199,256-yard (2011km) hole. Never mention slow play to me again after hearing this one.

They started out on the opposite side on Mongolia, played across the Altai mountains in the west of Mongolia, across meadows, before sinking the final 7-foot putt on the Mt Bogd Golf Club in Ulaanbaatar.

Now before anyone thinks this would be something they would like to try, understand that Rolston was hitting 250 full shots per day, in the rain, the cold, and the mud for 80 days. His back must’ve been a disaster area, but that’s nothing compared to what his caddie endured.

Yes, I said “caddie.” You certainly don’t think they had a Club Car do you?

His caddie, Run Rutland, had to pull a 100kg cart of food, water, camping equipment, clubs and golf balls across 25km of varied terrain, causing him to lose 16kg of weight over the 80 days.

Tell that to your caddie next time he/she complains about how heavy your golf bag is…

Anyway, the two set the world record and raised money for “Laureus Sport for Good”, which is a notable worldwide charity.

My hat is off to them.

When I was at Kings Island back in 2002-2006, the then Korean Ambassador, saw that I posted information about another player who played a ridiculous amount of holes in a single day without a buggy and decided he wanted to break that record.

Now I have to honestly say, Ambassador Kim was no spring chicken. He was an older gentleman with an iron will. To prepare he said he slept a lot the day before, ate a lot of ginseng and, probably kim chi… then set out to break the record.

One February morning,  Ambassador Kim played 111 holes without a buggy. He walked three caddies into the ground… and became the recipient of the first “Iron Man” award at the club. Since then others have tried, but I don’t think anyone has topped it yet.

Sorry guys, using a buggy doesn’t count.

For me, when I was young, 54 holes, 72 holes in a single day was no problem. My friends and I loved golf and during the summer we would be at the course from dawn to dusk and then hit the driving range for a few hours after. This was in the day when you either carried your own bag, or rented a pull cart. We never used buggies and frowned on them in general as not really being “golf”.

Of course, once you get older your opinions change. I used to frown on game improvement irons and graphite shafts too. Silly me. Age brings wisdom…

But when you truly love something, there seems to be no limit as to what you can do, as my friends and I demonstrated.

I truly wish others would learn the joys of playing golf simply for the joy of it.

OK, I have to admit my friends and I also gambled. We never played without something on the line. When you’re only 12 years old, you play for Cokes after the round. You get older and you start playing for drinks in the clubhouse, and then move on to bigger bets.

Yet, we never had bets so ridiculous that there was a danger of losing a friend. We kept things reasonable, but chirped at each other so much you’d think millions of dollars was at stake.

So to all the Rolson’s, Rutland’s, Ambassador Kim’s and other crazies out there…

I salute you. VNS