When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
European Tour player Victor Perez, who was in line to make a 2020 Ryder Cup team, posted this after taking his dog for a walk around a deserted Old Course at St. Andrews. Perez won the 2019 Alfred Dunhill links over Matthew Southgate.
We can’t play, but we can still prepare 📝
— Victor Perez (@v_perez2) April 4, 2020
I had a fun time today reliving my first @EuropeanTour win while getting ready for the next time we tee it up @TheHomeofGolf 😍 #StaySafe #OneDayAtATime @dunhilllinks pic.twitter.com/7ywHolISGy
There is no more nerve-wracking tee shot in golf than the opening hole at the Old Course.
There’s the history, the gallery and the mystery of whoever is watching behind those tinted Royal and Ancient windows. Oh, and it’s about a wide of a landing area as you can get.
And I’m confident, should you be worried, that this gem nobly shared in response to a Zac Blair question, will alleviate all concerns you will look foolish should the Old Course opportunity arise. Thanks to reader Brian for catching this.
My brother's friends first shot at St Andrews is unforgettable pic.twitter.com/DsKHW3TizB
— Tom (@culley999) February 21, 2020
Note that it appears the ball remains in bounds. Glad the tees were up!
This unbylined Sky Sports story looks at St Andrews university Professor Bill Austin's planned three-year study of coastal erosion and the impact on golf. An R&A grand as part of its Golf Course 2030 initiative.
"This research will allow us to consider all climate-related factors that will have an ever-lasting effect on the home of golf."
The Coastal Change Action Plan is a key component of the R&A's Golf Course 2030.
It was established in 2018 as an industry initiative to consider the impact of the changing climate, resource constraints and regulation on golf course condition and playability.
Researchers estimate almost £400m worth of property and infrastructure around Scotland's coastline is at risk due to erosion.
Despite incoming golf balls, tourists galore, hotels and parking problems, Golf Place remains Scotland’s most expensive street for the third year in a row. Oh, but it does overlook the Old Course at St. Andrews. So there’s that.
A street in St Andrews has been named the most expensive in Scotland for the third year running.
An average property in Golf Place, near the famous Old Course, costs £1.877 million, according to Bank of Scotland research.
Another nearby street in the town also makes it into the top 20 most expensive, with a house in The Scores costing £1.092 million on average.
Scores, schmores! Who needs those water and ancient ruins views when you can look at the Old Course?
Great news for the lucky souls in St. Andrews who have an open mind and an appreciation for golf history, as the Old Course will be set up in the reverse fashion once the original routing and later employed by Old Tom Morris to spread wear-and-tear. Annually, the routing is played in April.
Here is Jeremy Glenn’s deep dive on the setup and reverse routing.
From Graylyn Loomis on Twitter:
For the first time in years the St Andrews Links is allowing golfers to play the Old Course in reverse for two days late this month. Who has always wanted to play the Old backwards? pic.twitter.com/r3oDAHDNAC
— Graylyn Loomis (@grayloomis) November 6, 2019
The Morrissett brothers of Golf Club Atlas fame taught me the joy of settling golf course debates via match play. While not a perfect system to compare to works of golf architecture, it can be incredibly effective between semi-like-minded souls. Think of golf course match play as a war of attrition that sheds outside influences that muddy so many golf course rankings.
Forget the friendliness of staff, size of clubhouse and deliciousness of the cheeseburger. They can’t intrude on a straight-up, hole-by-hole duel.
Sadly, there are few forums for such debates and maybe as with 18 holes of golf, laboriously debating the merits of holes strikes some as tedious. But in an incredible week when the world of golf took us to Pebble Beach and The Old Course, the two most important jewels of their respective nations prompted a match to settle a question Matt Adams and I (sort of) addressed earlier in the week for Golf Central.
Here’s how my Pebble Beach vs. Old Course match played out. Disagree away and please, if you’ve been fortunate enough to play both, tell me your match outcomes. I won’t be hurt. (PS – we play these matches to the end, even if one course closes things out early.)
First Hole – The setting, the width, the burn, the tee where every legend of the game as stood, matched against the mediocrity of Pebble Beach’s opening hole, makes this a quickie. Old Course 1 up.
Second Hole – The “Dyke” features beautifully simple strategy, a need to consider the day’s hole location and a mind-boggling green complex at the end. While I love Pebble Beach’s second hole, changes in recent years to the landing area, the manicured barranca and a shrunken green complex add up to a loss. Old Course 2 up.
Third Hole – For years this would have been an easy win for Pebble’s third, one of my favorite holes until tweaks have taken some of the life and strategic subtlety away. Should be a Pebble win, but it’s not. Halve. Old Course 2 up.
Fourth Hole – Pebble Beach’s fourth has benefited from tree loss down the right, opening up the round’s first view of the sea. Some odd bunkering tweaks do not take away from this drive and pitch in the way gorse might be getting carried away at St. Andrews’s “Ginger Beer” par-4. Old Course 1 up.
Fifth Hole – Jack Nicklaus’ par-3 is a big improvement over the old fifth and has aged pretty well in twenty years. But the Hole O’ Cross is one of the world’s most bizarre and fascinating par-5’s, with an enormous green fronted by a deep swale that also can feed balls onto the absurd green. Old Course 2 up.
Sixth Hole – Speaking of fantastic par-5’s, Pebble Beach’s 6th remains beautiful and peculiar. A green expansion to reclaim trickier hole locations could make it better. While the Old Course’s sixth is a fine par-4, it’s not nearly as memorable as Pebble Beach’s sixth hole. Old Course 1 up.
Seventh Hole – Order another round, a long, drawn-out debate should ensue here. Pebble Beach’s 107-yard par-3 seventh remains one of the world’s most photographed and fun to play. There may be no better spot in the world of golf. But the green has morphed into a circle and old photos show a far more interesting hole. While the “High (Out)” hole requires a well-conceived tee shot, and one of the most underrated second shots in golf has you playing over the Shell bunker to a double green shared with the Eden. Sorry Pebble Beach. Old Course 2 up.
Eighth Hole – Pebble Beach’s magnificent second over the ocean easily beats out the fine, but ultimately so-so 8th in St Andrews. Old Course 1 up.
Ninth Hole – Another easy win for Pebble Beach. While St. Andrews’s 9th is fun to play, it can’t compete with the setting and shots required. Or the views. All Square.
Tenth Hole – Bobby Jones is another nice little drive and pitch, though the green shared with the 8th is a bit of a dud. The tenth at Pebble Beach? As magnificent a meeting of golf architecture and nature as you’ll find. Pebble Beach 1 up.
Eleventh Hole – The glorious High hole backed by the Eden Estuary, guarded by the Hill and Strath bunkers, offering views of town. Oh, and all of that history. Versus an uphill, mid-length par-4 with two hole locations? All Square.
Twelfth Hole – The most important short par-4 influencing designers from Jones and MacKenzie to Nicklaus and Weiskopf’s is too much for Pebble Beach’s modified Redan anchored by another circular green complex with most of the best hole locations lost. Old Course 1 up.
Thirteenth Hole – This one is tricky. The Hole O’ Cross is a strange, hard to grasp par-4 at the Old Course but ultimately one with strategy, interest and character. The uphill 13th at Pebble Beach also featured strategic charm, though I’m not sure how often in the modern game its steeply tilted green rewards drives down the left. Both are fun to play. Halve. Old Course 1 up.
Fourteenth Hole – Difficult three-shotters at both courses, the edge goes to St. Andrews on the back of its magnificent green complex and strategic variety. Old Course 2 up.
Fifteenth Hole – Straightaway par-4’s at both courses and of similar distances. Again, the green complex makes the difference. Old Course 3 up.
Sixteenth Hole – The Old Course, with its Principal’s Nose and Deacon Sime bunkers, a boundary fence and glorious green, get the edge as much as I enjoy the topography, shot shapes and difficulty of Pebble Beach’s 16th. Old Course 4 up.
Seventeenth Hole - The Road hole, even in its emasculated state with rough grass covering what should be fairway sending balls farther away from the optimum angle of attack, is still the Road hole. A restored green at Pebble Beach almost made me halve this one, but the restoration wasn’t perfect and the options just aren’t as interesting. Old Course 5 up.
Eighteenth Hole – As much as I adore the finish in St. Andrews, nothing compares to the conclusion of a day at Pebble Beach. Old Course 4 up.
There you have it. At least architecturally, a pretty turbulent match with few halves and ultimately an easy Old Course at St. Andrews win.
Hat tip to Alex Myers for this absolute beauty. The Old Course Hotel certainly is in play, but playing your second from the 16th is a humiliation I’m certain the Station Master’s Garden never inflicted on anyone.
How NOT to play the famous Road Hole at St Andrews...😳😂 pic.twitter.com/DtFCPBHRSO
— Lads Golf ™ (@Lads_Golf) September 10, 2019
Tom Ramage reports that major losses in their hotel empire will prompt the Macdonald Hotels group to sell most of their hotels.
In golf, that means two of the most storied properties possible will be available: Rusacks on the 18th hole of St. Andrews and the Marine hotel overlooking the 16th at North Berwick.
Hey rich golf guys, make sure these land in the right hands, please.
With a sand bottom…
I don’t meant to be cruel, but the fascination in Scotland these days with constant rebuilding of Old Course bunkers with an eye toward mechanical precision is increasingly tough to watch, particularly when we know a sense of naturalness is essential to reminding the golfer that most of these pits were accidental in origin. The more man-made they look, the more the golfer is likely to reject them.
Anyway, here are the photos of a recent reconstruction followed by a historic photo from a postcard I purchased a few years ago. Look at that face and lack of sand manicuring!
Even though we’ve seen this movie before: eliminating fairway at the Old Course to mask regulatory ineptitude, the retirement of Chief Inspector Peter Dawson seemingly put an end to that madness.
Turns out, his replacement has signed off on an enhanced rough harvesting effort to combat the surge in driving distances at the home of strategic golf, the Old Course.
Who knew there was any more rough to grow or fairway to eliminate at the Road?
While most understand the Road hole’s strategy and the visual and angle issues caused by bailing out left off the 17th tee, the R&A has begun adding more rough to “enhance” strategy by offering hack-out rough.
From John Huggan’s Golf World report after Martin Slumbers’ day with reporters this week.
“We will be looking at the course setup and there is some rough beginning to grow that will ensure the strategic nature of the Old Course remains. The importance of making sure you play the strategy properly will be enhanced. But if we get no weather, no wind and plenty of rain, we all know the links course is at the mercy of these great players. The Old Course is no different.”
Specifically, Slumbers indicated that the rough left of the 17th fairway on the iconic Road Hole will be enhanced in order to force players to the right, closer to the out-of-bounds. The grass on the bank left of the 14th fairway and right of the fifth will also be allowed to grow longer than ever before.
Also do not discount how much gorse has been allowed to remain to “defend” the course, on top of tee boxes on the neighboring courses, something Old Tom Morris worked to rid the place of and which was instrumental in the course’s increase in strategy and enjoyment.
But it’s the notion of taking a shot away from a player, or disallowing a ball to run to a disadvantageous location at the Old Course, that speaks to a special level of absurdity. Particularly given Slumbers’s suggestion that the growing effort has already begun, meaning everyday golfers will have to suffer more for one week every five to six years.
What a bleak and cynical vision for the most important and cherished links, and all so that a few people can avoid doing their job as regulators.
They have some work to do in St. Andrews reclaiming tents for the upcoming Alfred Dunhill Links after the dreaded Storm Ali blew through the UK and especially through St. Andrews.
Richard Rooney with details and photos for The Courier.
There was as also this Instagram posting:
View this post on InstagramGutted for them .. gonna be a busy day at the old course 😢
A post shared by Caroline Napier (@napiercaroline) on
The Forecaddie weighed in on the proceedings from Scotland where many Americans made the voyage.
Well done to all of the geezers who crossed the Atlantic in an effort to play this week's Senior Open at The Old Course.
For Immediate release:
Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee will make his first professional appearance in more than ten years after successfully qualifying for The Senior Open Presented by Rolex.
The American, who made his last appearance on the PGA Tour in 2008, was one of 27 golfers who came through qualifying to book their place on the Old Course at St Andrews from July 26-29.
A record 591 qualifiers took part in the traditional Monday Qualifying at Fairmont St Andrews, Ladybank, Lundin Links and Scotscraig, with participants from all four corners of the globe descending on the county of Fife.
The 56 year old, who shared first place at Scotscraig Golf Club, said: “St Andrews means a lot to everybody in the golf world, but it holds a special place in my heart because I spent the summer of 1982 in Scotland. One of the highlights of my career was playing in The Open in 1995.
“So to bring my career in the game full circle, from the amateur game, to the PGA Tour, to the Senior Open, I couldn’t be happier to have made the field and to play amongst some of the best players to have every played the game.
“It’s a real treat for me to see a side of the game I haven’t known for 15 years.”
Joining Chamblee from Scotscraig were compatriot John Inman and English amateur Robert Maxfield – CEO of the Professional Golfers’ Association. Also earning their spots were Victor Casado, Vicente Fernandez, Darrell Kestner and amateur G.S. Lacy.
The first results of qualifying came from Ladybank as Fran Quinn finished first on three under par. He was joined automatically by Tommy Tolles and David Shacklady, who successfully earned his Staysure Tour card at Qualifying School earlier this year.
A five-way play-off was required for the final four spots, with Bob Ford, amateur Ryan Howison, Mark Ridley and former Walker Cup player Gary Wolstenholme securing their places on the first extra hole.
At Fairmont St Andrews, the closest Qualifying venue to the Old Course, Spain’s Andres Rosa was the only golfer to finish under par – one stroke ahead of David Mills and Henrik Simonsen who finished level par with rounds of 72.
An eight-man play-off decided the final four spots with Sweden’s Mats Dornell joined by fellow amateur Gene Elliott, Bill Breen and Pedro Linhart taking the spoils.
Six spots were available at Lundin Links, with Gary Koch – a colleague of Chamblee’s - and Jonathan Cheetham sharing first place on three under par. Angel Franco, amateur Michael McCoy and San Filippo qualified automatically on two under par.
A six-man play-off determined the final place on offer for this year’s Senior Open, and play was suspended on Monday evening due to darkness with three players still in the hunt. After play resumed at 8am on Tuesday morning, Australia’s Paul Archbold became the last man in after negotiating nine extra holes.
The successful qualifiers will join a host of golfing greats at St Andrews including Ryder Cup Captains Sir Nick Faldo, Colin Montgomerie, Tom Watson, Ian Woosnam, and defending Senior Open champion Bernhard Langer.
Tickets starting at £15 can be purchased at st.golf/SeniorOpen18Tickets, while under-16s and parking are free.
Results
Fairmont St Andrews
Andres Rosa
David Mills
Henrik Simonsen
Mats Dornell (AM)
Gene Elliott (AM)
Bill Breen
Pedro Linhart
Ladybank
Fran Quinn
David Shacklady
Tommy Tolles
Bob Ford
Gary Wolstenholme
Mark Ridley
Ryan Howison (AM)
Lundin Links
Gary Koch
Jonathan Cheetham
Mike San Filippo
Michael McCoy (AM)
Angel Franco
Paul Archbold
Scotscraig
Brandel Chamblee
John Inman
Robert Maxfield (AM)
Vicente Fernandez
Victor Casado
Darrell Kestner
G.S. Lacy (AM)
The Beast From The East they are calling it, reports Brentley Romine. But look at the contours in snow! Arrow on the image right will take you through all of the shots posted by the Links Trust.
A post shared by St Andrews Links (@thehomeofgolf) on
The R&A finally got the hint after the USGA awarded future Walker Cups to Seminole and Cypress Point!
Announcing a return to the Old Course for the biennial matches was long overdue and most welcomed. It's a good time to be a 13 year old budding star!
For Immediate Release:
THE 49TH WALKER CUP TO BE PLAYED AT ST ANDREWS IN 2023
26 February 2018, St Andrews, Scotland: A historic milestone in the rich heritage of the Walker Cup will be reached at the Home of Golf in 2023 when the international match between Great Britain and Ireland and the United States is played at St Andrews.
The occasion will mark exactly 101 years since the biennial encounter was first contested at the National Golf Links of America in 1922 and will be the ninth time that the Walker Cup has been played at St Andrews; more than any other venue in its history.
The Walker Cup was last played over the world renowned Old Course in 1975 when the United States team, which included future major champions Jerry Pate, Craig Stadler and Curtis Strange, defeated GB&I 15½ -8½. GB&I won the Walker Cup matches played in 1938 and 1971 at St Andrews.
Duncan Weir, Executive Director – Golf Development at The R&A, said, “The Walker Cup is the pinnacle of men’s amateur golf in Great Britain and Ireland and the United States with many of the game’s greatest players including Bobby Jones and Sir Michael Bonallack having featured in memorable matches played over the Old Course at St Andrews.
“We are excited to be bringing the Walker Cup back to the Home of Golf for the first time in nearly 50 years and look forward to watching some of the world’s most talented amateur golfers contest the match over the famous Old Course in 2023.”
Euan Loudon, Chief Executive of St Andrews Links Trust, said, “We are delighted to see the Walker Cup return to our calendar of prestigious events at the Old Course. After a near 50-year absence we hope it will produce a memorable contest and reinforce the stature of amateur golf in Great Britain and Ireland.
“I am sure many talented golfers on both sides of the Atlantic, some of whom may just be at the beginning of their golfing journeys, will be inspired by the prospect of competing in amateur golf’s premier match at the Home of Golf.”
The match in 2023 will be the 49th playing of the Walker Cup and, of the 46 matches played to date, the United States has won 36 matches, GB&I nine matches, with one match tied.
The 2019 Walker Cup will be played on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 September at Royal Liverpool, the venue for the first ever match between teams from Great Britain and Ireland and the United States in 1921 which would become the Walker Cup one year later.
Seminole Golf Club in Florida will host the Walker Cup for the first time in its history in May 2021 while the 50th Walker Cup will be contested at Cypress Point in California in 2025.
As The Forecaddie notes, golf's worst-kept secret was made official with the awarding of the 2021 Open Championship to the Old Course at St. Andrews. As I noted when the news broke during Morning Drive today, this is bucket list stuff. So start saving your money!
The R&A's announcement includes some wonderful footage and images:
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
