What can I say about the Old Course at St. Andrews that hasn’t already been said? Probably not much. So instead, I’ll focus on the entirety of the experience and try my best to describe why playing a round at St. Andrews is the most amazing experience a golfer can ever have.
To properly set the stage, you have to start with the town of St. Andrews itself. St. Andrews is a charming Scottish town with a thriving university and provides a picturesque setting that frames the courses. We were lucky enough to stay in the Dunvegan Inn, which is local hotel and pub a few blocks from the first tee of the Old Course. If you can arrange it, do stay at the Dunvegan. If you can’t, do your best to stop in for a pint or two after your round. The bar there is an eclectic mixture of a Scottish pub and a golf museum. Any golfer who is worth their salts has been there, had a drink, and snapped a picture to be hung proudly on their walls.
As for the course itself, I don’t think I could ever pull together the right words to relay how special of an experience it is, but I guess I’ll try. As you walk to the course, you pass the British Golf Museum (which is worth a visit) and the causally stroll past a beautiful building which houses the R&A. As you prep for your round you’re greeted with a bit of a surprise as the driving range is a half mile walk. If you’re familiar with the Old Course, the range sits on the right-hand side (if you were playing the hole) of the 16th hole. I recommend walking to range and carrying your sticks as it gets you in the right mindset for the day to come (I’ll have a future blog post on why walking is the right way to play the game but that’s for another day). Additionally, from my experience a brief walk to start your round can help relieve some of the early round nerves that we all get. And believe me, you’ll definitely have some nerves at St. Andrews. The practice putting green on the other hand is located right next to the first tee and can only be described as one of the grandest practice greens I’ve ever stepped foot onto. It feels as if your putting on an elevated platform that is be hoisted into the air by the greatness that is St. Andrews. To even allow your mind to wander about, thinking of past golfers that have warmed up on this same green is humbling. The only other putting green in the world that I’ve been on that feels this special is that of Carnoustie. So, the moral of the story here, is be sure to get there early because you don’t want to start your round by being rushed and missing out on some really cool experiences.
Okay, let’s move on to the course itself and the round that accompanies it. I’ve only played the Old Course once so I’m not qualified to speak on the nuances of one of the most nuanced courses ever so you should probably take what I say with a grain of salt. But the brilliance of St. Andrews is derived from the ever-focused attention to detail. The course feels very open and welcoming. The fairways, like most links courses are rather large, especially given fairways often run parallel to one another forming gigantic open spaces, and the greens offer good sized targets, especially those that are double greens. But to truly put together a good round at St. Andrews you’ll need to lean on your caddy for strategic advice and try your best to put your ball in the right spots off the tee to have good angles of attack into the greens. Given that the greens are so large, the pins can easily be manipulated forcing golfers to play holes in drastically different manners.
We all know about the opening tee jitters. Well, when you step onto the first tee at the Old Course I would say the level of adrenaline flowing through your body is somewhere around the same level of choosing between cutting the blue, red, or green wire to defuse a bomb! The saving grace thankfully is that the 1st and 18th holes share a fairway forming one of the largest targets I’ve ever seen.
Instead of giving a hole by hole run-down of the course, I’m going to choose to focus on a few of my favorite holes and add in a few tips and local knowledge that might just help you if you’re lucky enough to play a round at the Old Course.
Hole 1 (Burn): The first hole at St. Andrews is well known, as are most. But I enjoyed it because Old Tom Morris, the course’s original architect, gives you a chance to play the hole in many ways and doesn’t make it overly penal or stressful. I generally appreciate a course that eases you into the round, allows you to find your rhythm and then really runs you through the gauntlet to close your day. Now just because Old Tom gives you a breather on the first hole doesn’t mean he’s conceding a birdie. The first hole is relatively easy to par if you hit a decent tee shot, which isn’t hard given the sheer size of the fairway, and then follow it up with a green in regulation, again, not the hardest task given the green is sizeable. But to make a birdie you must be strategic with where you place your tee shot to have an ideal angle at the pin. If memory serves me correctly there was no major trouble on the first hole other than the Swinlcan Burn that runs in front of the green. Do your best to take a few deep breaths before you tee it up and soak in every second of your experience.
Hole 9 (End): A short par 4 that tempts players to put driver in hand and give the green a scare is littered with trouble. It’s a classically well-designed hole in that manner as it gives you a false sense of security only to ream you if you make even the slightest mistake. My advice to you would be two-fold. 1) Do yourself a favor and layup off the tee. 2) If you don’t (which is what I did) just tee it high and let it fly and live with the consequences. I took an unfortunate bogey on this hole as I over-cooked my draw into a scraggly thorny shrub that forced me to take an unplayable.
Hole 11 (High - In): If I’m not mistaken, this was the hole that a young Bobby Jones ripped up his scorecard in frustration of the test provided to him by the Old Course and famously walked off, DQ’ing himself from the 1921British Open tournament. This hole is such a fun hole. The course loops around itself creating a figure eight shape and the tee shot here forces golfers to carry a valley where other golfers walk from hole to hole. The green itself is a pretty daunting task. Hidden behind two nasty bunkers, a two putt is no guarantee once golfers make it to the green. Do your best to hit the green as there aren’t a lot of good misses on your way to the hole.
Hole 12 (Heathery – in): When under his direction, Old Tom Morris decided to leave his mark and flip the orientation of some of the holes as St. Andrews. The reason that this is important is because there are several bunkers that, on the original design would have been easily seen from a pre-existing tee as they were cut into the fairways at an angle so golfers could see down into them, are now completely hidden from sight as they face the other way and are mostly blind to golfers. This hole exemplified that as from the tee the fairway looks simple, open and friendly. But unbeknownst to many, the fairway is littered with landmines in the form of hidden bunkers. A good tee shot here still leaves you a fun and challenging shot into a multi-tiered, shallow green. Do your best to get your ball on the right level otherwise a three putt is almost a sad certainty.
Hole 17 (Road): Ah yes! One of the two best (or at least favorite) tee shots I’ve ever hit in my life came on this hole. A good tee shot on this hole can only be likened to what I imagine the feeling of seeing your first child born or speaking directly to god and having him answer you back is like! When your caddie gives you a line, you should probably listen to him so as to not disturb some snoozing guests in the Old Course Hotel with an errant tee shot! I remember it like it was yesterday. My caddie told me to start it over the “O” of Old. I looked at the line feeling overly confident and aggressive and slyly replied, “What do you think about the “t” of hotel… with a little draw!?” At that moment, we locked eyes and he gave me a confident nod of approval and said the one thing that every golfer wants to hear during their time at St. Andrews, “Aye laddie.” And with that, I was ready to go. To say that I executed that shot perfectly would be an understatement. I EXECUTED THAT SHOT PERFECTLY!!! The brilliance of St. Andrews though snapped me right back to reality as I was met with the most challenging 9-iron approach shot I’ve ever hit. The green on the 17th hole runs right along a road. Missing the green long by more than a couple yards means your ball is OB and bouncing on a road. There is also a diabolic bunker that is nestled right into the nook of a kidney shaped green. Additionally, the green is slightly elevated and surrounded by closely shaved banks repelling any slight miss back into the fairway leaving you with a very delicate 10-20 yard pitch. This attention to detail is the exact type of nuanced brilliance that defines St. Andrews. You can’t let your guard down for a second.
Hole 18 (Tom Morris): The 18th hole is well known and equally well celebrated. We’ve all seen it on the broadcasts of The Open Championship. We all know about the dreaded Valley of Sin that runs in front of the green. We’ve all seen the picturesque setting of the R&A and ancient buildings that perfectly frame the green. But until you’ve stepped foot onto the hole you can’t properly appreciate how amazing all those things are when they come together in front of you. The 18th is a pretty straightforward hole. It’s not long and the fairway, as it shares with the 1st hole, is a huge target. One of the things that I found to be really cool about the 18th is how oddly incongruous it is from the rest of the course. Golf, especially at St. Andrews, is typically not a game that is defined by perfectly straight lines and right angles. But the 18th is set along a road on the right that frames the hole with a perfectly straight edge and then boxes in the green with a hard, right-angle in the back right corner of the hole. The only parting wisdom I’ll leave you with on this hole is don’t be afraid to play your game. When I played the hole, I smashed a tee shot to 40 yards short of the green. After a bit of convincing from my caddie I decided to play a traditional Scottish approach shot and putt the ball from 40 yards. Well, I don’t know about you but I don’t practice 40 yard putts all that often. So, as you would expect I gave it a go and left it about 5 yards short of the green. In hindsight, even though the fairways are mown extremely tight I should have hit a pitch shot that I was more familiar with. I guess I thought it would be easier since it was a putter. At the end of the day, I would recommend you play your own game and live with the results. Thankfully I got the ball into hole after 3 more dreadful putts and carded a 79 for my one and only round at the Old Course at St. Andrews.
Grades (where 1 is significantly below average and 5 is significantly above)
Scenery: 5 stars
Design: 5 stars
Condition: 5 stars
Practice Facilities: 4 stars
Experience: 5 stars
Click here for a more detailed breakdown of how I think about course ratings.
Closing thoughts: This was easily my most favorite golf experience to date. St. Andrews is arguably the most historic plot of land in golf and from the first second you arrive into the town to the time you leave, you will have a once in a life-time experience.
