Secret History of Golf in Scotland

Sixty-four year old Duncan MacPherson has spent his entire life on a 420 acre farm in North Central North Dakota. Duncan has never been married, never graduated from high school and has never traveled further from home than Minneapolis. His parents, who were both born in Scotland, are buried in his back yard. "Aye take care of me mum's grave pretty good," he says. "Aye donna give a rat's ass about the old man." Given his Scottish background, it is perhaps not beyond reason that such an isolated man might have some interest in golf, but Duncan MacPherson's attachment to the game has, according to his neighbors, exceeded good sense. He has six fully landscaped golf holes carved into what was once a rolling pasture and he spends the majority of his time changing, improving, planting and grooming these into magnificent reproductions of the finest holes in Scottish golfing history: The Road Hole at St. Andrews; Brae at Carnoustie; the 4th at Royal Dornach; the Postage Stamp at Royal Troon; the 6th at Machrihanish and Hogan's Alley at Carnoustie. Now he has written a book about golf, The Secret History of Golf in Scotland, which he claims is part oral tradition, part legend and part family history. "We MacPhersons know more about golf than ye know about your own belly-button," he says.Goodman, Gary is the author of 'Secret History of Golf in Scotland' with ISBN 9780978640002 and ISBN 0978640004.