Head greenkeeper Robert Paterson has an unusual assistant to help him carry out his job:
a blind border collie.
A familiar presence at Royal Aberdeen Golf Club, five-year-old Skye is the only dog allowed on the course which hosts the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open this weekend.
Robert, who has been in charge of maintaining the greens for almost 20 years, says he could not do his work without the company of faithful dog Skye, who lost his sight at six months old after an accident on the course.
Mr Paterson said: "Skye's a constant companion and is always by my side. When the accident happened nothing could be done to repair Skye's damaged optic nerves but there was never a question of what we were going to do. We just adapted life at home and work to suit him and now you'd never know he was blind.
"Although he's lost his sight he knows every bunker on the course and uses his sense of smell and hearing to get around."
While the Scottish Open coming to Royal Aberdeen is an exciting time and career high for Robert, the event will be tinged with sadness for both Robert and his beloved dog.
"Sadly our other border collie, Brodie, passed away a few weeks ago at the grand age of 15," he said.
"Brodie was a real character and a support to Skye as he wore a bell on his collar to help him find his way around. The dogs have always played a huge part in my working life which is why Brodie has been laid to rest out on the 9th tee at Royal Aberdeen.
"We all feel a tremendous sadness that Brodie isn't here for the Scottish Open but Skye won't be far away."
Skye and Brodie will be starring in adverts for Aberdeen Asset Management that will be broadcast in the USA during live coverage of the Scottish Open.
The adverts were filmed just one week before Brodie died.
Thousands of spectators are expected at the course for the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open, with golfers doing battle for a share of the £3 million prize money this weekend.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article