In Golf in the Kingdom, a classic sports book about adventures on a mystical Scottish links course – and the spiritual growth that can take place there – the narrator’s ball ends up buried in a gorse bush.

His appeal to the local pro/guru he is with to drop the ball clear of the thorns is met with a brusque: “Play it like it lies. It’ll come out.” The ball stays put, but the ordeal leads to life lessons being learned.

The principle of playing the ball as it lies is a central one in golf – rule 9 according to the world’s two main governing bodies, the R&A and the