Special Places - St Andrews

The Old Course at St Andrews plays host to The Open Championship this year, the 150th anniversary of the world’s oldest golf tournament. Prestwick’s then-12-hole golf course on Scotland’s west coast was the venue for the first twelve championships beginning in 1860 and went on to host twelve more, the last of which was in 1925. The Open was first played at St Andrews in 1873 and returns for the 28th time this week. Historical records show golf being played on this piece of common land since the early 1500s, and in 1764 the layout that had previously been played over 22 holes was shortened to 18, becoming the standard thereafter for all golf courses. The current course design was created a century later in 1863 by Tom Morris who was groundskeeper of the Royal and Ancient, the supreme authority in world golf. Today there are seven public courses in the St Andrews complex, making it the largest of its kind in Europe.

For this year’s Open the Old Course will play 6680 metres. Its unique blend of blind shots, out-of-bounds on most holes, and invisible pot bunkers, will make the championship a stern mental and physical test even if the weather is reasonably benign. There are seven double greens – a throwback from the days when golfers on the outward and inward nine would play to the same green – with only the 1st, 9th, 17th, and 18th having their own greens. Every hole has its tales of triumph and disaster, and many are writ large in the annals of golfing history and folklore. Most noteworthy is the iconic and brutal 17th, the Road Hole, stretched this year to 455 metres and living up to its title of the ultimate penultimate. Other names to conjure with – the Valley of Sin, the Principal’s Nose, the Spectacles, and Hell Bunker – also lie in wait.

The Old Course this week will be the backdrop for a number of storylines. Nostalgically, Seve Ballesteros, who is still battling brain cancer and all but four of the 31 other living Open champions, will partake in a four-hole exhibition. Also, intriguingly, Tiger Woods is trying to turn his golf and life around at the scene of two of his most majestic performances in majors, and become the first player to win three Open titles at St. Andrews. Australian Kel Nagle hoisted the Claret Jug here fifty years ago at the centenary Open Championship. A treasured spot in sporting history also awaits the winner this year at St Andrews, a place of pilgrimage for the world’s golfers.