On My Golf Bucket List: Scotland and The Old Course

TODAY I WAS REMINDED OF my golf bucket list when my wife told me that her brother is heading to Ireland this August for a golf trip. A few years ago he went to Scotland. He brought me back a cap from Royal Troon. I still have it. I still long to go.

There are several things I’ve been able to cross off my golf bucket list. I’ve been to many golf tournaments and a handful of majors. In 2008 I finally made it to Augusta National Golf Club for the Masters. I was also fortunate to attend the Ryder Cup at Valhalla in Louisville.

What’s left?

I’ve always wanted to play Pebble Beach, as I mentioned not long ago. I don’t know if or when that will happen at this point. I’m no longer in the West Coast neighborhood and the green fees are five Benjamin Franklins. But here’s a big one: I want to attend The Open Championship. I also want to set foot on the Home of Golf, St. Andrews, the Old Course. It’s on my golf bucket list. I need to get there.

(Photo: The Road Hole at St. Andrews / courtesy of Melvyn Morrow)

I know golf in Scotland is like a pilgrimage. It’s something a golfer should do at least once in a lifetime, if at all possible. I could happily tour all of Scotland’s fabled links if I had enough time and money. But it seems to me that St. Andrews is the destination for those interested in a serious golfing holiday. After all, it’s where this crazy game began.

My dad went to Scotland and St. Andrews in the 1980s. He bought me a cap. As I mentioned, my brother-in-law went a few years ago. He bought me a cap.

I DON’T NEED ANY MORE CAPS.

I need to see the Road Hole with my own eyes. I need to walk across the Swilken Bridge toward the Valley of Sin. I need to hack my way out of one of those insane pot bunkers and play a Miguel Angel Jimenez carom shot. If you have played and watched golf much of your life like l have, then you’re nodding your head. This makes perfect sense to you.

I expect to accomplish this goal.

The Old Course isn’t always love at first sight. The great Bobby Jones was not impressed the first time he saw St. Andrews. Nor was Sam Snead. Scott Hoch called it “the biggest piece of mess I’ve ever seen.” A few years ago, a former tour and club pro told me, “I felt like Bobby Jones the first time he saw it. Thought it was a cow pasture.”

Yet, the Old Course won over Bobby Jones, and Bobby Jones won over the Scots, returning again and again and winning three Claret Jugs.

As for me, I’ll be glad if I can just go once. When I do, maybe I’ll buy someone a cap.

−The Armchair Golfer

(Brought to you by YourGolfTravel.com, the online destination for golf breaks uk.)

Doug Sanders and the Freight Train Shot

I WAS READING SHANE’S piece on Doug Sanders over at Dogs That Chase Cars and it got me thinking about the man who missed a 30-inch putt on the final green at the Old Course and went on to lose the 1971 British Open to Jack Nicklaus in an 18-hole playoff. I’ve seen Sanders on the Grand Champions circuit on several occasions over the last few years and let’s just say he’s as colorful as ever.

(Note: Sanders was ranked No. 4 in Golf.com’s Top 10 Best Dressed Golfers. The shoes always matched.)

The following anecdote from a Golf Digest feature on Sanders reminded me of Miguel Angel Jimenez’s now famous carom shot off the rock wall at the Road Hole.

In a money game at Cedartown one day, a guy named Dallas Weaver found his ball behind a tree. A lot of money was riding. We thought he was dead. There were train tracks running by our course, and just then a freight train came through. Dallas Weaver turned sideways, took some kind of low iron and banked a ball off the side of a freight car and almost onto the green. That was 50 years ago, and I’ve never seen anyone top that shot.

Sanders is a piece of work. Read more of the Golf Digest story on Sanders and stock up on a month’s worth of golf anecdotes.

−The Armchair Golfer

(Image: Scott Butner/Flickr)

The Unbridled Emotion of Seve Ballesteros

SEVE BALLESTEROS COULDN’T MAKE the trip to St. Andrews for the reunion with 20 some odd other British Open champions. His doctors wouldn’t allow it. His health is too fragile. Nonetheless, there have been many Seve tributes this week, some that could bring a statue to tears. Rightly so.

Anyone who saw Seve play in his prime would no doubt remember his charisma, fieriness, imagination and unbridled emotion. Whether or not he was among someone’s favorites, there was no denying that Seve was a singular player who left his mark on the sport.

The above short clip is Exhibit A. Seve holed out on the final green of the 1984 British Open at the Old Course. He was the year’s champion golfer, his second of three Open crowns, and his reaction was pure joy. It’s a good way to remember him.

−The Armchair Golfer

Exclusive Q&A: The Weather Talks Open Championship

IN AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW, the Weather spoke to ARMCHAIR GOLF about Open Championship week, including some hints on what to expect the next four days at the Old Course.

Q: Thanks for doing this.

WEATHER: Sure.

Q: Everybody was talking about you today.

WEATHER: I’m used to it (chuckling). It’s raining sideways. I’ve heard that one since Old Tom was knocking wine-bottle corks through the streets of St. Andrews. The American press is particularly amusing. All that rot about this is what summer is like in Scotland.

Q. Does the talk bother you?

WEATHER: Not at all. I actually look forward to it. Mid July is always highlighted on my calendar, a very special week for me.

Q: Can you tell us which players are most flustered by you?

WEATHER: No, I’d rather not. It’s not sporting. Sorry.

Q: But you know who they are.

WEATHER: Oh, sure. I can always tell. Watch closely and you’ll see. The body language, the crazy shots, the slammed clubs. I really get into some players’ heads.

Q: This field is made up of 156 of the world’s top players. Wouldn’t you agree that most have played championship golf in all kinds of conditions?

WEATHER: Many of the players talk a great game. They talk about Open experience, their preparation, how they love links golf in a stiff breeze, playing the ball on the ground, the bounces, good and bad. It’s total rubbish. The truth is, I scare the FootJoys off them. They’re little boys who want their mums.

Q: I don’t know how to ask this.

WEATHER: Just go ahead.

Q: Do you have a strategy?

WEATHER: Not exactly. I show up and things develop from there. Some wind. Some rain. Nothing too complicated. I usually restrain myself somewhat. Most years, it could be a lot worse. At Carnoustie a few years back things got completely out of kilter. I admit it.

Q: Some like you, though. There are those who really thrive on you during Open week.

WEATHER: I do have my share of friends in the R&A. They are always glad to see me and tend to fret if I’m too calm. Most of the others who are fond of me don’t have to play.

Q: The forecast is calling for rain on Thursday, rain and wind on Friday, showers on Saturday, and showers on Sunday.

WEATHER: Weather forecasters. Now there’s a bunch.

Q: Are they wrong?

WEATHER: You’ll have to watch.

Q: Thanks for taking the time.

WEATHER: My pleasure. Enjoy the Open.

−The Armchair Golfer

(This is an ARMCHAIR GOLF spoof.)

From Tom Kidd to Tiger Woods: The Open at St. Andrews

The following is an excerpt from THE OPEN: Golf’s Oldest Major, a pictorial history of the championship that includes overview texts. To enter a free drawing for a copy of the hardcover book, email your name and address to armchairgolfer@gmail.com.

By Donald Steel
Special to ARMCHAIR GOLF

© 2009 R&A Championships Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

MOST GOLFERS’ IDEA OF HEAVEN is an Open at St. Andrews. For the players, there is certainly nothing to compare with victory over the Old Course—Jack Nicklaus maintains that “if you want to be remembered, you have to win at St. Andrews.”

There have been suggestions that every Open Championship should be held there so it is no surprise that it has housed more than any other venue. It is no surprise either that, of the three original courses used for The Open, it is the sole survivor. Recently, it has played host ever fifth year.

No course is more public than the Old in the sense that so much is visible of the start and finish from adjacent streets and buildings. The 18th green gives the feeling of being part of the town and, at the climax of an Open, is overlooked by thousands who have paid and a good few hundred who haven’t. Necks are strained from many a window. In the playing sense, it is the course of double fairways, double greens, pot bunkers, and the Road Hole—the most infamous in the world, a combination that golf course architects regard as the blueprint of their art for all students to follow and revere. Not that everyone has stood in awe.

Harry Vardon claimed that the Old is “a good course, but its bunkers are badly placed,” which may explain why none of his six Open victories took place there. George Duncan, on the other hand, remarked, “What I like about the Old Course, is that you play a very good shot and find yourself in a very bad place.” Tiger Woods’s reaction in 2000 was to avoid the bunkers altogether in all four rounds, a forerunner to victory by eight strokes that equaled St. Andrews’ biggest winning margin by J.H. Taylor exactly a hundred years earlier.

Taylor and Woods share with Jack Nicklaus, James Braid and Bob Martin the honour of winning two Opens over the Old Course but two other memories stand out. St. Andrews marked the first and last appearances of Arnold Palmer and the victory in 1964 of Tony Lema, with Palmer’s caddie on loan—one of the most remarkable of all.

Open Championships played at St. Andrews:
1873 / 1876 / 1879 / 1882 / 1885 / 1888 / 1891 / 1895 / 1900 / 1905 / 1910 / 1921 / 1927 / 1933 / 1939 / 1946 / 1955 / 1957 / 1960 / 1964 / 1970 / 1978 / 1984 / 1990 / 1995 / 2000 / 2005 / 2010