At last: The Old Course blog. (It's been a manic few days, sorry).
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We'd been looking forward to this day all year. Well, that??s not entirely accurate. In recent weeks it was looking like we wouldn??t get a chance to play The Old Course; in fact we??d almost resigned ourselves to the fact that it wasn??t going to happen. As most of you will know it??s not the easiest ticket in golf to get. The uncertainty of the ballot doesn??t sit comfortably with our imperative of having to play golf every day. And so it was a very welcome surprise indeed (very welcome doesn??t quite cover it) when one Graeme Pook fired through an email that went something like this:
??Chaps are you fixed up to play either of the below? I can help if you??re interested...
10th August: St. Andrews (Jubilee) - 7.36am
11th August: St. Andrews (Old) - 7.30am...?
Well blow me down. Graeme??s a champion among men who runs Executive Golf & Leisure, and he??s been good natured enough to help tee up a few of our fixtures in Scotland (The Carnegie Club, Gleneagles King & Queen, Machrihanish & Machrihanish Dunes). Then came Possibly The Most Exciting Email Ever Sent. I replied that sorry, but I was planning on having a lie on the 11th. 7.30 is a terribly anti-social time to be walking some old links where the greenkeepers have always been too lazy to cut 18 individual greens. Then good sense prevailed and I took him up on his kind offer.
I remember back to The Early Days of puregolf2010, when Mike would always answer the ??what course are you looking forward to the most? question with St. Andrews. (My answer was and continues to be Royal County Down). Well fair enough: it??s The Home of Golf; the site of many a historic moment and one or two rounds of golf across the centuries. I won??t delve into the history of the place because 1. It would take too long; and 2. There??s too great a risk that I??d fudge a detail or two, thus being condemned to wearing the dunce hat by the 6 billion golf afficionados Out There. Suffice to stay it??s steeped in history and something of a golf Mecca. Golfers talk about their pilgrimages here for years, even decades. Pooky helps make those pilgrimages possibile, which must give him a buzz.
[Mike and me by the Starter's Hut]
[Mike, Ed and me in front of the R&A clubhouse]
On Old Course Eve, I must confess, I hardly gave a thought to the fact that we would be on that famed first tee in the morning. Because I was playing Carnoustie. Which was Brilliant. But when the alarm went off at some unGodly hour, I knew. I knew that I was about to tee it up in front of the widest fairway in Open golf; play over the Swilken Burn; do my best to dodge Hell and Shell bunkers; hit a few 100 feet putts; tee off blind over what looks like an endless stretch of gorse and tussock; blast one over The Old Course Hotel; dig myself out of The Road Hole Bunker; try to drive the 18th green; pitch over The Valley of Sin; then finish out in front of some of the most recognisable buildings in the game.
[Swilken Burn in foreground; 1 and 18 behind]
Yes The Old Course lived up to the hype. It was an equally unique and magnificent experience, something we??ll both remember until we stop breathing. Our playing partners were a lovely Swiss couple ?? Duri and Elizabeth ?? over on one of Pooky??s tours. They too had played a few of the courses that we??ve been fortunate enough to visit in recent weeks; and they had plenty of chat to boot. Among the better humoured Swiss that I??ve met. So we had a famous time. Big Ed walked around with us too, taking a snap or three along the way (but not unfortunately carrying my bag). Lazy blighter.
The South African (?) gentleman who might be described either as The Starter or as a maitre de was a gentleman, putting us at ease as much as he could. Scores of photos were taking of us on the first tee, in front of the R&A clubhouse ?? in a myriad number of poses. They know what it means to stand on the 1st at St Andrews with a 2 iron in your hand, about to get under way. With 2 iron in hand I then took a few deep breaths and tried not to sh*nk one into the still standing grandstands. Much to my delight ?? or relief, rather ?? the wee white thing disappeared somewhere off to the left onto the 18th. Not a vintage golf shot but In Play and that was all that counted at that moment. Mike took a much more dicey line down the right but ended up safely within bounds. 17 and a half holes to go; this game is easy.
The way the fringes are mown at The Old Course, it can be hard to make out the border between fairway and green. So you find yourself opting without much thought for the putter from quite significant distances. Most people that have played the course would??ve hit a 30 or 40 yard putt I??m sure. I struck my first on the first, after a punch 7 iron caught the wind and only just flew the Swilken Burn. At this point you still can??t quite believe you??re playing The Old Course. You??re looking around; the holes look like the holes you??ve seen on TV or even at The Open; everything is familiar ?? yet you still have that This Must Be Happening To Someone Else feeling. At times you wish it was someone else standing over your putts.
[2nd green]
[A nasty pot bunker]
We didn??t take a caddie, but Elizabeth did. Chris was an Edinburgh lad of few words ?? in fact the first time I think I heard him speak was on the 3rd when he told Duri to stop looking for his ball in the rough because we had to keep up with the group in front! Duri wasn??t best pleased; Chris was quite insistent, to the point of being stern. I wondered whether Chris would be getting a gratuity at the end. He had a point though.
On the 2nd hole you walk past that big mustard building with the words ??The Old Course Hotel? scribbled across it. A very impressive sight let me tell you. You??re also gazing across to the 17th, wondering what it??s going to have in store for you in a couple of hours time. In the back of your mind are a few less than optimistic scenarios. But you focus on the task at hand and try to avoid the myriad pot bunkers ?? some of which face ??the wrong way? (because the course used to be played the other way around). Ed utters a word or two of encouragement but still shows no aspirations to carry a bag. I tell him what I think of his laziness but our friendship remains intact for the moment.
The blind tee shots you hit along the front are intimidating to say the least. You soon realise though that the fairways behind the gorse ?? being double fairways ?? are as generous as Bill Gates. Gents?? advice to stay left proved useful, and thankfully the driver was behaving relatively well. From the fairway all you need to do is knock it onto the gargantuan greens and sink the odd putt. Easy enough. Ha!
Come the 6th hole I had my first Old Course moment. By that I mean I couldn??t have been playing anywhere else. After one of my better tee shots I had lob wedge in hand and birdie in my head. The uphill lie under my eyes must??ve made me overcompensate because I thinned the ball 50 yards long left of the pin. It was still on the edge of the green! It??s a weird bringing your putter head back more or less parallel with your waist but that??s what was needed. Got it within 10 feet but left the par putt in the jaws. Sod it.
Shell Bunker is a terrifying creature of sadism that I??d glared at in disbelief during The Open. It sits on the short 7th hole at about 295 yards from the (blind) tee. After 3 putting the 6th there was no doubt that the big stick was coming out ?? Shell Bunker or No Shell Bunker. Wind slightly at my back I killed one more or less on the line I had intended (which rarely happens after a 3 putt) and expected to be in the sand or near it. Marching over the hill my ball was nowhere to be seen so my fears heightened. A 50 yard bunker shot out of That ?? to a green as undulating as the 7th, especially at the back where the pin was tucked ?? could be tormenting. But. 5 yards long and left of Shell was a wee swail. In that swail was my pill ?? HOORAY! Not that I managed to get up and down for birdie through the Alps but never mind that.
By the end of the front 9 the clouds were starting to roll in from the south west. Not nice clouds either. Our spirits unlike our clothes couldn??t be dampened though, no Sir. We were hacking it ??round the most famous course in the world. There were even some good shots being played too.
[Approach to 10]
[11 tee - Shell Bunker visible on right of picture, guarding 7 green (and very errant shots on 11 for that matter)]
[Zoomed in shot of 11, a gnarly par 3]
Part of the thrill of playing St. Andrews is the anticipation of what exactly is going to happen to your ball once you hit it. On shots where you can see it land there??s invariably enough undulation to keep it running in one way or another for as long as it flew. Hidden trouble ?? like the bunkers in the middle of the 12th fairway ?? also adds to the tension. Then there??s the totally blind shots where you have no idea what??s going on until you march over gorse or dune. Never a dull moment.
[Goldy on 13 tee]
[Hell Bunker on 14]
Elizabeth God Bless Her was doing wonderfully well for someone who doesn??t hit it as far as others. Thanks to some very deft short game she ground out a few pars and bogeys when phone number scores could??ve been possible.
[16 green; Old Course Hotel in background]
Eventually we arrived at The Road Hole. There??s no other tee shot like it. I was standing one over par thinking ??if I birdie 17 and 18 I card Under Par Round #1 for the year...at The Home of Golf.? Then I got real. And pulled it into the thickest rough on the course! My provisional sailed handsomely over the apex of the Hotel, probably landing somewhere in the garden of The Jigger. Mike hit a memorable Phil Mickelson like power fade down the middle ?? a very impressive blow indeed. Whether sadly or otherwise, I found my first and tried to hack out with an 8 iron. Some grass I pulled up went further than the ball, then I hacked out again into the road bunker. I was almost willing it into the bunker as I saw it fly left. Such things you must do at least once.
[17 tee - the most thrilling in golf?]
[Elizabeth on 17 tee - dressed for the occasion like a Navy Seal...]
To add to the comedy, my ball was up against the lip, requiring an almost vertical flip to get out onto the putting surface. It wasn??t even any easier to come out the wrong way. My heels were dug into the revetted face (the pin being front right); then I closed my eyes and hoped for the best. Gracious it flew up and out, to about 20 feet. A left to right putt isn??t usually my strength, but this one ducked mercifully into the middle of the cup, giving me an agricultural 5. Poor Mike 3 putted from off the front for the same score. What a great hole though.
[Looking back down 17 from behind the green]
It??s quite a sensation standing on 18 where you??ve seen Watson and Woods and Nicklaus and the like standing. A huge fairway lies ahead; it almost seems too big to miss. Almost. My miss in recent times has been the block, which could??ve been destructive. I aimed at the right edge of the R&A clubhouse and swung for dear life. Close but no cigar ?? I came up about 50 short. Mike hit a good one too and was a few yards away from me. Could we finish with a memorable birdie to round off a special special day?
[Ed and me on the Swilken Bridge]
The march over the Swilken bridge was, well, like walking over a bridge. I??d walked over it before on past visits to St Andrews, but I suspect Goldy had a few more hairs on the neck given it was his first time here. Being good Japanese tourists we took a good few obligatory snaps then hurried along as the rain was falling harder by the minute. Rusacks Hotel and the famous club rooms were on our right, as was the Old Tom Morris shop. The grandstands were still to our left. And the R&A clubhouse was ahead, next to that big sandstone building whose name escapes me. A real stadium feel.
50 yards over the Valley of Sin to a back left pin. Thin lob wedge anyone? Things could go wrong. But they didn??t and I managed a memorable birdie for a 73. Mike missed out but had a respectable 77 nonetheless. More importantly we had a phenomenal time and can now say we??ve played at The Home of Golf. For this we owe a huge thank you to Pooky and The Golfing Gods. And to our new Swiss friends for a lovely lunch in the New Clubhouse afterwards, once we??d got dried off.
[18 green]
To All Yous Golfers: if you love the game, do your level best to get here at some point. It??s a hallowed place and a tremendously fun golf course to play. Take photos by all means, but the memories will be etched vividly in your psyche for years to come. I can remember every second. Fond memories indeed.
JP
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