Eden

Eden, the garden in which everything was perfect, that is until Eve caused all that trouble. The St Andrews Links Trust has a perfect little golf course as part of it’s offerings. The Eden course is shorter, 6250 yards, than the championship courses but is maintained to the same standards. It’s next to the Old course, in fact the famous Hell Bunker on the fourteenth hole of the Old Course is only a little more than 200 feet to the right of the first green on the Eden. Heck, I’ve sliced many a ball that far but usually on a drive, not an approach shot. Often overlooked by visitors, it is very popular among the locals. It’s also the most affordable. The Eden course has it’s own clubhouse with locker rooms and lounge bar, and it’s located near the practice facility.



We played it in 2008 and my journal says that the fairways are generous, with difficult tricky greens and a few quirky holes. My fondest memory of the round was that I drove into a pot bunker on the twelfth hole, a short par four, only 341 yards long. I was unable to advance the ball very far down the fairway from that position and had a shot of over 50 yards to the green. As the fairways play hard and fast, I putted the ball and it wound up pin high. That’s the beauty of links golf, there are many ways to play the shots. No one way is any better or worse than another.

A truly unusual feature of the Eden is that it has a water hazard other than a burn, extremely rare on links courses. A pond guards the left side of the fourteenth hole and you must drive back over it on the par 3 fifteenth hole.

I’d say this would be a perfect venue to sneak in a quick 18 some evening.

ODL