St. Andrews Videos: Bobby Jones Wins In 1927

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The Open's official highlights from Bobby Jones winning in 1927 includes some great shots on the course and era-approprirate music. What a time and place!

The weather wasn't so hot in 1927, so if you're going this year this ought to be a reminder to pack that umbrella:

Check out this Critical Past footage and note the crowd stampeding over the Road green.

Finally, and my favorite of the clips, the footage of the crowd rushing the Home green after Jones clinches. If you watch carefully at the 0:49 mark you can see the epic moment when the crowd lifts Jones and carries him away. That moment produced quite possibly the greatest golf image ever, and it leads off this GolfDigest.com slideshow.

The AP game story from the time (unbylined) makes for fun reading because it describes the reaction to Jones finishing his round and says he was in the ninth of 27 pairs to go out (yikes playing behind that stampede). The story that ran in papers across America includes this epic description of the R&A clubhouse when pointing out how Jones was leaving the Claret Jug behind for safe keeping. Someone had WiFi issues! Excuse me, typewriter ribbon problems...

The announcement was made before a crowd of several thousand persons jamming the spacious St. Andrews eighteenth green and terraces around the drab old stone pile which houses the potentates of the royal and ancient game, awaiting the presentation ceremony.

Jones posted a 285 total to beat Aubrey Boomer and Fred Robson by six strokes.

"All are welcome at the home of golf on Sundays. Except golfers."

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I haven't a clue why, on the eve of the U.S. Open with St. Andrews hosting The Open in a month, the New York Times felt compelled to run Sam Borden's piece on Sundays at The Old Course. Even ill-timed, it's an enjoyable read.

Borden writes:

Sunday activities on the Old Course over the years have run the gamut. A local woman named Marie-Noel, who declined to give her surname, said she recalled members of her family laying out their laundry on the course some weeks and added, with a mixture of sheepishness and pride, that she and her friends used to participate in an on-course drinking game known as Port Golf when she was attending a university nearby.
Matheson, one of four guides handling the daily tours, recalled seeing fishermen spread their nets on the fairways so they could mend them. He shook his head when relating a story about a woman in high heels trying to walk across one of the greens.

“That happens more than you would think,” he said. “Then you sometimes see some of the boys out with a football trying to have a proper game before they get chased away.”

Matheson said he had never heard of any serious discussion about changing the Sunday rule. He noted that Old Tom Morris, the legendary player and greenskeeper who revitalized the Old Course in the mid-1800s, was said to have preached, “Even if the golfers don’t need a rest, the course does.”

Old Course Snags Another One: Add Rory To The Converted List

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Add Rory McIlroy to the long list of elite golfers who have found the Old Course at St. Andrews lacking ("hated it" in McIlroy's case), only to play it more and more and fall in love.

From Doug Ferguson's AP notes column:

"Thought it was the worst golf course I've ever played," he said. "I just stood up on every tee and was like, 'What is the fascination about this place?' But the more you play it and the more you learn about the golf course and the little nuances, you learn to appreciate it. Now it's my favorite golf course in the world."

Links Trust Ups The Ante In Fight Over St. Andrews Name

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The operators and caretakers of the world's most important course continue to take their eye off the ball and focus on suing those using the St. Andrews name.

The Scotsman's Shan Ross reports on their serving citations on St Andrews International Golf Club and Feddinch Developments over the new 18-hole private Tom Weiskopf course on the outskirts of St. Andrews.

The claim is that the private companies, operating on the outskirts of St Andrews, are passing off and taking benefit from the internationally-renowned activities and reputation of the St Andrews Links Trust (SALT), the charitable trust which runs seven courses, of which the Old Course is one.

The citation centres round the issue that the private companies have been incorporated to deceive or confuse the public, or to induce the belief that their golf-related goods and services are connected with those belonging to Salt.

Ewan McKay, a director with SAIGC and Feddinch Developments Ltd, said that this was not the first time that local businesses had been pursued by the trust over use of the St Andrews name.

“The fact is that they [Salt] are in dispute with several local companies over the same issue and I find the whole thing abhorrent,” he said.

“What right has a body established in 1974 got to deny people who have businesses in St Andrews to use that name?”

Phase Two Of Old Course Destruction Commences

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Graylyn Loomis has photos of the vehicles moving into place and executioner Martin Hawtree overseeing the Old Course at St. Andrews' Phase 2 destruction slated to include new bunkers and most pathetic of all, removing the "acute spur formation" that has guarded the fourth green for centuries.

Even though the spur is integral to the strategy, the R&A, reluctant to change it, agreed because today's greenkeepers can't figure out how to mow what's been around for centuries.

You may recall that last year in late November, distracted by the anchoring ban, the word dropped late on a Friday (when else?) that changes were being made to the Old Course to help the links prevent a 59 from being shot keep up with the modern game, under the supervision of the R&A's Chief Inspector Architect, Peter Dawson, with help from golf architect Hawtree and from a Links Trust proudly abdicating its responsibility to defend the Home of Golf from vandals.

As you may also recall, the reviews were not good, especially from those pesky Australians (here and here). 

Dawson went on a PR swing of sorts to the few outlets that wouldn't press him about his past comments suggesting that any tampering with the Old Course would be akin to putting a moustache on the Mona Lisa and just not a wise thing to do.

There had been indications that support was eroding for elements of Phase 2.

You can relive the entire saga here in the archives. And there was this to be dusted off, courtesy of the art department:

St. Andrews Record Ad Asks Peter Dawson About Changing His Views On Altering The Old Course

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Thanks to the reader who sent in this image of an ad in Thursday's St. Andrews Record calling out R&A Chief Inspector Peter Dawson for his reversal on Old Course changes.

The full text:

“Because of the history of the Old Course, moving hazards is not the option it would be at many other places. You simply can’t move a bunker here or there on the Old Course. All that leaves is to move tees. The course has proved many times that it is subtle enough to provide a strong challenge. We are not trying to change the character of the course…” 22 02 2005

Mr Dawson, why have you changed your mind?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/golf/4292635.stm

The course is currently hosting the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, with Phase 2 of the R&A mandated changes set to begin this winter. Though there have been indications that support is not unanimous for going forward with some of those changes.