For my first post on Driving Range Heroes, I think it’s only proper to discuss the first golf course – The Old Course at St. Andrews.  For many of us, The Old Course at St. Andrews is not only a “bucket list” item, but THE “bucket list.”  I was able to make a visit a few years back and it’s still vivid in my memory, so here’s my story.

The typical American golfer is used to the greenest grass, towering trees, and (eww) water hazards.  But each year, we look to get our fix of something different – brown grass, bump and runs, sideways hail…  You wake up early or set your DVR to watch it.  The Open!  The R&A usually schedules The Open at St. Andrews every five years.  You think of Tiger, you think of Jack, you think of John Freaking Daly.  The time had come for me to make the trip to The Old Course at St. Andrews.

Cross the Atlantic – Do it!

My wife and I did a ten day trip to England and Scotland in 2013, with three days set up in St. Andrews.   While I’d booked other golf on the vacation, I had no set tee time at The Old Course.  What a risk!  There were nerves, but I was plenty determined to get my game in.  The first things you realize when you get to town is that St. Andrews is pretty tiny.  We took the train in from Edinburgh, Scotland to Leuchars, an even tinier town (or toon, as the locals say) about 15 minutes away.  We took a taxi in, got settled and went for a walk.  In a short amount of time, you’ll pass the University, a few peculiarly named streets (Butts Wynd being the crowd favorite) and a bunch of shops and pubs you’ll want to visit later.  But you know “IT” is there somewhere.  You see people walking with their golf bags up and down the streets.  You start to feel it.

And then you begin to see familiar things.  Is that the Old Course Hotel?  Is that the Royal and Ancient?  What’s that old brick wall?  Then you realize you’re walking along the back of the famous Road Hole 17^th…  and it slowly hits you.  All your golf nerdiness has peaked.  You’re at the Home of Golf.

First Tee Jitters

I needed a tee time and didn’t have one!  No way I come all this way and don’t play The Old Course at St. Andrews.  Well, if you do make the trip, you’re in luck as the Links Trust gives you many options.  You could pay (please don’t) a boatload to get a guaranteed time through a service, win the local lottery for an open time slot, befriend a local, or do what I did – get in line at 5:00am as a single and wait.  (Oh, it was about 35° and October in Scotland…)  So I bundled up and headed out well before the sun even thought about rising.

I was first in line, standing shivering outside the starter shack, acquiring my absolute best golf memory.  It was me, the first tee box, and the stars.  You could hear the North Sea’s waves on the beach.  You try and visualize where they put the stands for The Open.  You think of all your heroes ready to send it down the fairway.  You think of Old Tom Morris preparing his course.  You could practice putting and get smoked by a sprinkler… Pretty soon your new friends show up.  A Swede, an Englishman, and best yet – the Starter!  He tells you to come back for a 10:30am tee time, and luckily you get to go back for breakfast and a good half hour of much needed sleep.

The excitement is high on that first tee.  You’re ready to go, you’ve snapped your picture in front of the R&A, took some practice swings, then your ball’s in the air.  That first fairway is 120 yards wide, but feels like a bowling lane.  I pulled my opening drive a bit left, but hit fairly solid.  My drive ended up about half a yard from the Swilken Burn, with only a wedge into the green.

I’ll spare you much of the details of how I played, or even the specific strategies of holes (considering the course I played on a Thursday will offer a completely different challenge on Friday thanks to the wind and weather) and just focus on a few feelings and observations.  I chunked that wedge on the first, as well as the chip for an unpleasant 6, by the way…

The Old Course at St. Andrews

The Old Course at St. Andrews itself is wide and playable.  Hit the ball solid, move it forward, and you should have little problem getting it to the green.  The locals will tell you to keep your misses to the left, and I found that mostly true (the out and back routing typically allows you to hit it on to the hole going the opposite way – sometimes for an advantage!).  The first six holes were straight downwind, and I was catching 30-40 yards extra on my drives.  That’s a great feeling from the tee box, but not so much when you’re hitting for a specific distance with a 9 iron.   I hit Driver/5 iron onto the par-five 5^th and was faced with one of the most unique shots in golf – a 100+ foot putt.  Do the math, nice bogey.  Holes 7 through 11 get a bit more complicated as the routing loops you around.  The 11^th hits over the 7^th, and the 9^th and 10^th feel like they share the same football field, but down and back.

The greens are legendary for a reason.  You prepare for it, but the size and slope of The Old Course’s greens will be a shock to many visitors.  They’re huge.  But they’re slower and grainier.  Of course it’s normal for Scotland, but for someone who considers himself a fine putter on Midwestern Bentgrass, you need to have great touch with speed – especially for lags and those short ones.  As you make your way through 14 and Hell Bunker, 16 and the Principal’s Nose (of course you’re familiar with all the bunker names by now!), you know what’s next.  The Road Hole.  It’s every bit as intimidating and exhilarating as you expect.  I smoked my drive, but ended up in the light left rough, hit a long iron short/right, chipped up and missed my par.  Really not too bad!  On 18 tee, you get one more shot at glory – and it’s legit golf glory.  Hit it hard, and you get to walk up to a crowd surrounding the green, ready to cheer or heckle you.  They know you just finished a round you’ll never forget.

Now You’ve Done It

The quick tally led me to a round of 90 for my round at The Old Course at St. Andrews.  I was satisfied enough coming in at around a 10 handicap, dealing with cold temps and a lot of wind.  Felt like I couldn’t buy a putt.  I mentioned my opening double, right?  Well I left an eagle putt on 9 a few inches short for a birdie, and made bogey on the remaining 16 holes.  Pretty unique!

I worry that too many people would want to go to a place like St. Andrews and only schedule time for golf and the pub.  That’d be a mistake, as this town has so much more to offer.  Our tiny bed and breakfast overlooked the ruins of a 900 year old castle.  You’re no more than a long par five away from the long abandoned St. Andrews Cathedral.  Take a walk along the beach or the Scores.  Go to Cromars and get the best fish and chips of your life, then visit the aquarium and meet their famous penguins!  There’s centuries of history and days of activities (after golf of course!)

How Can Golf at Home Compare Now?

Well it can’t!  You’ll be wanting to hit stinger drives and chip with 7 irons at your home course, but it’ll never compare.  I find the golf in the UK to be without question the most fun places to play.  We make it a point to do a trip to Europe every other year.  Usually it’ll be somewhere new, but it won’t be long until we end up back in the Kingdom of Fife.  The lasting memory for The Old Course at St. Andrews is that it’s both familiar and a dream at the same time, and every golfer should make an effort to visit.