I've had a question for some
years now, and now that I'm on this forum, it might be easy to have answered. When writing about St Andrews, MacKenzie talks about something on the 14th (Long), presumably a hazard, called "Perdition". What is this hazard? I cannot seem to find anything about it.
Here is the relevant reference:
Some years ago there were four of us playing four ball matches nearly every day for a month. We, according to our judgement, attempted to play this hole in four different ways. “A” played his tee shot well away to the left of the Beardies onto the low ground below the Elysian Fields, so as to place his second in a favorable position for his approach. “B”, who was a long driver, attempted to carry the Beardies with his drive, Hell with his second, and run up his third. “C”, who was a short but fairly accurate hitter, attempted to pinch the Beardies as near as he dare, and then played his second well away to the left, so as to play against the slope of the green for his third. “D” took what was apparently the straightforward route along the large broad plateau of the Elysian Fields, and eventually landed in Hell or Perdition every time; he invariably lost the hole.
-Alister MacKenzie, The Spirit of St Andrews (page 148 in the edition from Sleeping Bear Press)
As you can see "Perdition" does not appear in the adjoining illustration:
![](https://i.imgur.com/BTDrT3w.jpg)
If anyone knows this, I would be quite grateful for that information, especially if there are any other references to it.
thanks,
Matt