Golf Scrapbook Blog (The Top Ones)

St. Andrews: Old Course

May 2022 – There is so much written about St. Andrews that I can’t possibly add anything of value except my own experience and opinion (and even that is of suspect value). Maybe though, from a bogey golfer’s perspective, I can confirm or dispel some of what I read and heard:

1. The history and architecture crowd of course salivate over St. Andrews. Agree, rightly so. The history oozes from the course and that drives the experience. The design is by mother nature. Who else can say that?!? Many have copied the holes here yet it is so different than anything you will ever play at home.
2. I’ve heard you can’t appreciate it until you play it more than once. That’s B.S. Even the first time out, you will play all kinds of shots and the experience will be great.
3. You can score on the Old Course if the wind is not blowing. True/played with one ball and shot an 85 as a 17 handicap on a misty morning with barely a hint of a breeze – just bring your lag putting game (even from off the greens) and don’t go in the bunkers.
4. It’s not worth it. Wrong. Like Pebble, it is a course every God-fearing golfer must play at least once in his/her life.
5. The British have bad teeth. Uh, yes.
6. Kilt-wearing Scottish men get paralysis with the bathroom symbols. I guess.

So we went to Scotland on a couples/golf trip with my wife and buddies, Mike and Betsy. We golfed and the ladies castled. We played 6 courses in the first five days and we guaranteed the Old Course nearly two years before by paying a shit ton of money to do so. It was well worth it. This was the second golf day of our trip and we played after getting dumped on the previous day. More on that elsewhere.

We didn’t get caddies but had played with another twosome with caddies the previous day at the Castle course and we asked if their guys could just point us in the right direction et al for the Old Course. They were fine and the caddies were great. We didn’t “not” get caddies to be cheap just didn’t feel like getting them. We were glad we had them though and the guys got an extra big tip so everyone left happy.

It was very foggy when we played. You’ll see that in some of the photos below. We visited the town and course Sunday when we got in and you’ll see some of the photos are bright and sunny. That was from Sunday. That’s the great thing about the Old Course, it’s closed Sundays and the public can walk around the course unfettered.

To the course. As you’ll see from the photos, they had the stands up for the upcoming 150th Open. This actually gave us aiming directions in the fog! My buddy said he was pretty nervous on the first tee. Funny, I wasn’t at all. It’s like a driving range and was able to play a nice fade to the right side of our fairway. We played the blues which measure about 6,400 yards. The first is a 355-yarder so I has a decent drive (for me) and about 130 or so left. There is not a lot of room behind the blue tee so the pros are probably only playing this another 25 yards or so. For a lot of the holes, the tips aren’t way far back so I’m surprised they don’t kill this course (Zach Johnson won it at -15 the last time they played here). But again I played with no wind.

The second was completely fogged out but hit an ok drive that ended up in the heavy grass. But was able to get it out and bogeyed. I won’t bore you with a hole-by-hole score but finished 41 – 44 with six pars and only one double+ (the fucking par three 11th where I hit my best ball of the day but it ended up a few inches short in the bunker and it took me two and a throw to get out). I also finished the round with the same ball that I started with. I did that previously at Pebble and was thrilled to repeat the feat. And then again in Carnoustie.

I guess the seventeenth was my favorite hole but really liked the variety of all of the holes – between long and short throughout. And coming up eighteen is so awesome.

The top of the course is a jumbled mess. You are hitting 7 up into one part of the green, criss-crossing other groups hitting it to the 11th. Both pins were no more than 20 yards apart when we played. It was so fucked up that it made it awesome. You would never do that here. Then there were quite a few short (very short) par fours in a row up there too.

All in all, if you haven’t done it, go. The total experience is just over-whelming. A stay at the Old Course hotel (that you hit over on the 17th) gets you access. Or go with an authorized provider (we used Pioneer and they did a great job). They will give you your options to get on. Next time (and there will a next time so we can finish Kingsbarns – more on that later), we will also do the ballot and if that doesn’t work queue up in the singles line for here (but then we won’t be upset if we miss it as we’ve at least played it already). Then we would hit the Highlands and Northern Ireland.

We stayed in a B & B about a mile from town – the Old Station Guest House. The house and hosts were awesome but unless you’re a group playing two rounds a day and wanting to go back and crash, you would have to drive or cab it into town. I recommend staying in town.

For lunch, hit the Jigger Inn which is on the Old Course Hotel property. Dinner? Forgan’s was awesome as was the Seafood Restaurant. We were supposed to hit Balgove Larder as well, but plans got screwed up – they don’t take reservations either. Try the haggis somewhere. It’s not as bad as it sounds. And Tenant’s is the beer of choice there for non-scotch drinkers (You’ll see below the old 150-yard marker with the Tenant’s we brought on). I hate Scotch BTW, tastes like hairspray.