St. Andrews (Old Course)

The day has arrived.  The one we have all been waiting for.  The home of golf, The Old Course, and in typical Scottish Summer style, it hosed with rain all day.  Fortunately from a photo standpoint, we walked the course yesterday morning whilst it was closed and got quite a few photos.  This post will be a mix of a few when it was possible today (not many), and those from yesterday.

Yesterday's champion Geoffrey Knight fires away from the first, in front of the R & A clubhouse, and the Hamilton Grand apartment building.  On what it the most intimidating 110 metre wide tee shot, I am pleased to say that all of us got good drives away.

Looking over the Swilcan Burn to the right of the first fairway.

And back to the town of St. Andrews from the other side of the burn.

Jenny Jones pitches over the burn on the 1st.

One thing that is hard to show either on TV or in pictures, are the massive undulations in the fairways.  This is just in front of the second green.  You need to really be creative on your approaches to the green, and many times your ball bounces sideways in the fairway.

Legend has it that golf has been played here since the 12th century when shepherds would knock stones into rabbit holes with rudimentary clubs.  It was reputed to be a very popular pastime when the St. Andrews University was founded in 1413.

By 1457, the popularity of the game had reached such a level that King James II outlawed it for taking men away from their archery practice. The Act of the Scottish Parliament describing “golfe” along with “fute-ball” as “sik unprofitable sportes”.
In 1552, on the proviso that Archbishop of St Andrews, John Hamilton, was able to retain possession of the rabbits on the course, the town’s right to play golf on the links was officially established.

In 1754, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club was founded under its original name of the Society of St Andrews Golfers. The Old Course originally consisted of twenty-two holes, eleven out and eleven back. On completing a hole, the player teed up their ball within two club lengths of the previous hole, using a handful of sand scooped out from the hole to form a tee. In 1764, the Society of St Andrews Golfers, decided that some holes were too short and combined them. This reduced the course to eighteen holes and created what became the standard round of golf throughout the world.

In 1797, due to 'temporary impecuniosity,' that is to say bankruptcy, St Andrews Town Council lost total control of the Links, allowing rabbit farming to challenge golf for pre-eminence. This led to what is known as the "rabbit wars".  Twenty years of legal and physical war between golfers and the rabbit farmers concluded in 1821 when James Cheape of Strathtyrum, a local landowner and keen golfer, bought the links and, in his own estimation, 'saved the Links for golf.'

The above stone is a "March Stone".  These stones are seen, although covered, in the middle of some fairways such as the fifth and seventh, and near some tees such as the second and the eleventh.  These March Stones were designations of where the boundaries of the course originally existed (“March” is an archaic term for “boundary.”).  It was Mr Cheape who upon purchase of the land, conducted a survey establishing the course boundaries, and installed the March Stones. Originally the course utilised essentially the same fairways out and back, and was even narrower than it is today.  Some of these stones have the letter G on one side, and other have the letter R.  The G stands for Golf, and so will appear on the golfing area side of the stone, and the R is for Rabbits, appears on the opposite side of some stones, determining the rabbit hunting ground side of the boundary.

The track through the whin bushes on which the Old Course evolved was so narrow that golfers played to the same holes going out and coming in. As the game became increasingly popular in the nineteenth century, golfers in different matches would find themselves playing to the same hole, but from opposite directions. To relieve the congestion, two holes were cut on each green; those for the first nine were equipped with a white flag and those for the second nine with a red flag. This continues to this day, except on the 18th where a white flag is in use.

We did think we had seen the last of the heather in England, but she made a reappearance here at St. Andrews.

The Old Course is full of quirks, and here we see one of the greens that provides one of the biggest. At the edge of the Eden Estuary, the seventh and eleventh holes not only share a massive green, but the path of the holes cross over.  The left side of the green is the 11th, and the right is the 7th, however, the approach for 7 comes from the left, and the tee for the par three 11th, comes from the right.  You need to have your wits about you when you approach the holes as people come out of nowhere.

When Old Tom Morris created a separate green for the first hole, it became possible to play the course in an anti-clockwise direction, rather than clockwise which had previously been the norm. For many years, the course was played clockwise and anti-clockwise on alternate weeks, but now the anti-clockwise, or right-hand circuit has become the accepted direction. Many of the course's 112 bunkers, however, are clearly designed to catch the wayward shots of golfers playing the course on the left-hand circuit.  One such bunker is pictured above. It is on the 12th hole, not far from the tee, and is called the Admiral's bunker.  This shot of it is taken from the fairway side, looking back to the 12th tee.  You need to be careful walking off the 12th tee or you could fall into it.  This is actually how it got it's name.  An Admiral was playing and noticed an attractive lady walking by, he forgot where he was going, and fell into the bunker.

A little pot bunker here on the left side of the 12th hole, only a hundred metres or so off the tee, completely out of play.  This is a great view back across to the 8th and 10th green.

The boundary fence that runs down the right side of the par five 14th.  The path here was originally where the rail line ran.  The railway first came to St. Andrews in 1852, and the tracks closely hugged the 14th, 15th and 16th holes.  This prompted the quick issuance of Rule XX in the Royal & Ancient Rules of 1857 (“Should a ball betwixt the rails, the player shall have the option of playing it, or lifting it and dropping it behind him, losing a stroke”).  Train conductors knew not to whistle when players stood over their ball.

Also on the 14th hole is this fairway bunker.  Appropriately named "Hell Bunker", it doesn't look too bad here.

But when framed up this way, with Sue Nicholson's help, we can see just how huge it is.  It is almost 300 square metres in size, and has claimed many victims in the past.  One of the most notable being Jack Nicklaus, who in 2000, had troubles with Hell Bunker, and racked up a 10 on the hole.

There are only 11 greens on the old, seven of which are double greens, and they are huge.  If you get your distance wrong, or fire to the wrong flag, you could end up with a putt of  nearly 100 metres (the 7th & 11th green is 101 metres wide).  The largest green, 5th & 13th, is 37846 square feet or nearly one acre.  An interesting fact is that the hole numbers of all of the 7 double greens adds up to 18.
2 & 16, 3 & 15, 4 & 14, 5 & 13, 6 & 12, 7 & 11, 8 & 10.

Quite possibly the most famous hole on the course is the par four 17th.  The "Road Hole".  This hole presents many challenges.  When the St Andrews rail line existed (from 1852 - 1969), the original working railway sheds were located here.  The smaller building above is a rebuilt replica of those sheds. A drive over the corner of the railway sheds (avoiding the hotel) is required, which the gives you further challenges upon you approach to the green.

Players are then faced by a wide, thin green with two significant hazards.  Firstly there is the small and deep "Road Hole" bunker, and then behind the green the thin tarmac road (from where the hole gets it's name) that is nestled right in behind the green, and is in play.

I would love to have a dollar for every time a photo is taken of people on the Swilcan Bridge.  Everyone walks across it when departing the 18th tee, and pretty much everyone gets a photo.  Our group today, looking more like drowned rats, Bernard Cassell, Jenny & Gary Jones and your truly.

Bernard firing one last iron in towards the 18th green.

After the round, we were fortunate enough to be given a quick tour of the R&A clubhouse by Rhodri Price.  Rhodri (who many will know from his association at KHGC during our Open IFQ events) is now Director - Championship Operations, and is in charge of organising everything for the Open Championship.  We were able to access the balcony outside the office of Martin Slumbers, R&A CEO, and what is the best view from an office in golf.

Of course it had stopped raining at this point.

The rain did not deter our group, and impressively many played really well, including me for 13 holes.  The winners of the day were Grant Nicholson & Peter Hannon, who both had 40 points.  Two great efforts in trying conditions.

Tomorrow we head to "Carnasty" (Carnoustie) and hope that the weather is kinder to us.