6:30am wake up call came early today. Donncha and I headed 10 minutes out of town to the Castle Course, which just opened last summer and is the first new course owned by the St Andrews Links Trust in a long time. More about the Links Trust later. This reminds me so much of Whistling Straits, I was very excited to play here. It was designed David Mclay Kidd, the guy who designed Bandon Dunes. The driveway down to the clubhouse goes through the course and there are big dunes all over the place with great views of the sea. When we got to the first tee it was sprinkling rain, cold, and the windiest golf conditions I’ve ever been a part of. The starter told us to be careful….that was somewhat daunting!!! We had come this far, so we marched into it.
I think the hole was pretty short, but I hit a great driver and 4-iron to get a par. The second hole was about 140 yards and I hit another solid 4-iron (I hit a 4-iron about 200 so that is a 6 club wind if you’re keeping track at home). Another par. Great start!
You learn a lot about your golf game in these conditions…I became much more comfortable hitting 4 irons, 5 irons, and 3 woods routinely. The greens on this course have received a lot of criticism due to their extreme slopes and are often compared to mini-golf. This wasn’t as accurate on the front as it was on the back, but I would agree that for the most part the architect went way overboard.
Back to the weather. The sun shined quite a bit during this round, otherwise it would have been pretty bad.
Me with the Auld Grey Toon of St Andrews in the background
We saw bench flip over in the wind.
Bench flipped over at Castle Course
Balls were rolling off greens. I hit a putt 6 inches past the cup and it blew back in. I hit a 376 yard drive followed by a sand wedge to get home in two on a 530 yard par 5. I followed that up with a driver on a 175 yard par 3. Donncha determined that there was a 10 club wind on one hole when he hit a 4 iron from 100 yards. The conditions were so bad here that it was actually comical.
Flags struggling to stay in the hole
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I’m an 8 handicap, I hit the ball well, and shot 95!
We took a half hour break at the turn for coffee and warming up. Once we finished we headed back into town to find the others, but we weren’t successful. Donncha is a member at The New Club, which is similar to the R&A. The New Club is located on the 18th fairway of the Old Course wo we had lunch watching the golfers come in. Another member joined us…he was also a member of the R&A…it was fun to hear his stories about living around there and being a part of those clubs.
Then we were off to the Old Course. I expected to be nervous on the first tee, but for some reason I wasn’t. Unfortunately, they ran out of caddies so I didn’t get one, but I was sort of tired of caddies so that was okay by me. It is such a strange setting though…people are everywhere there. A road goes through the middle of the first fairway, people are cutting across fairways on walks…not golfers, just people. The St Andrews Links Trust is set up to maintain all the golf courses…there are 7 of them in the area looked after by the links trust. The actual property of the Old Course is public land though and no golf is played on Sunday’s. People just go for walks out there. Not something you’d see at many courses back home.
It was pretty magical hitting our tee shots and walking down that first fairway. The wind from this morning had died down to about 30mph so it was still really tough, but not nearly as bad as it was this morning. The second through 5th holes weren’t extremely memorable although I think there were some pretty cool holes. The green complexes were amazing. 14 of 18 greens out there are double greens so some of them literally seem as big as football fields and you have groups all over the place. The course goes out and back and a lot of the fairways are shared so people are yelling FORE all the time…it is very entertaining. Every once in a while people will have 250 foot putts…literally. It was so cool. I didn’t play particularly well on the front and I think I shot 47. Without wind this course could be really easy. The back 9 was much more fun as we had a more favorable wind. By the last 4 holes it had even died down quite a bit. To me, the back 9 is great. I two-putted from about 200 feet on two occasions. I almost got home in 2 on 15 (I was actually over the green), which was fun! I made my first par of the day and avoided the cavernous Hell Bunker (which once took Jack Nicklaus a bunch of shots to get out of). 16 has a bunker called Rob’s Bunker, which I thankfully avoided. Then, 17 is one of the most famous holes in golf…the Road Hole. You literally have to hit it over part of the Old Course Hotel and you can’t see any of the fairway from the tee. I hit a decent drive, but still had 200 yards into the wind to a narrow, elevated green with out of bounds on the right and a tight pin on the front left by the famous Road Hole Bunker (which took David Duval 5 shots to get out of). I hit the best hybrid shot of my life to 15 feet…damn that was fun. Unfortunately I missed the birdie putt, but I’m glad to say that I got it to the hole. Par is a great score there.
Obviously, the last hole is also very famous for its bridge. We hit our tee shots, then got our pictures taken, and marched up the magical field that is shared with the first fairway. It is a pretty easy hole. I hit driver, sand wedge to about 20 feet. I left the putt 1 inch short…dead in the center of the hole…almost birdied it. The entire group had an amazing time on the Old Course…one guys said it was the most fun he’s ever had playing golf.
After golf we had another round of pints at the Jigger Inn and then showered up and headed out for a good dinner. A few of us hit a few bars after that in St Andrews, which was fun. One of them is an old golfers bar called the Dunvegan. The owner had pics with celebrities and golfers covering the walls. After it closed we walked home on the 18th hole across the swilcan bridge and along the road hole. Not too many bars allow that walk home. Jim and I decided we wanted a couple more so we went back to the Road Hole Bar. One of the problems with hotel bars is the opposite of the local pubs. They will stay open and let you drink as long as you want them to. Dangerous.
Tomorrow we play at Kingsbarns, which is out of town past the Castle Course. I tried to type this entry after getting home from the Road Hole Bar, it was a futile effort!!!
Cheers,
Rob
