Walking the Old Course

Heading out to investigate.

The golf courses at St Andrews Scotland are owned by the town and managed by the St Andrews Links Trust. Golf is played seven days a week on all of the courses except the Old Course. This tradition is supposedly linked to Old Tom Morris, Keeper of the Greens, who declared that the Old Course needs a day of rest. With the exception of professional tournaments there is no play on Sundays. It is public ground and you are welcome to walk the course.

Documenting the troubles.

As we were scheduled to play the Old Course on Tuesday we thought it wise to go out and walk the course to see what was in store for us. We headed down North Street, turned on to Murray Park and down The Scores to the first tee. I surveyed the fairway shared by the first and eighteenth holes and immediately experienced disappointment. Numerous signs were posted around the first tee and eighteenth green indicating that people should KEEP OFF. I was hoping to walk on green and tees and explore bunker up close and personal. Dang! We headed down the first checking out our supposed landing areas and the best angles to the green.

Hit it over the C in Course.

As we approached the first green and second tee we were struck by the lack of KEEP OFF signs. It then hit us that we could in fact walk on greens, tees, and in bunkers if we liked. The keep off signs were limited to the high traffic areas.
The day was overcast with light wind, much like what we would face on Tuesday. The number of bunkers and there positioning is overwhelming. This could be trouble. We got in green side bunkers from which you couldn't see the green. We studied the slopes on the greens and marveled at the size of the famous double greens. There are seven double greens, shared greens for the outward and inward nines. The sum of the holes numbers always add to eighteen. 2+16, 3+15, etcetera and so forth. I think we made it out to the sixth or perhaps it was only the fifth, when  we realized that we needed to head back if we were to make our tee time a the Golf House Club at Elie. We didn't rush but move towards the final hole, Tom Morris. We posed for pictures on the Swilkin Burn Bridge, somebody took pictures and I hope they will add them here. We got our first view of the Royal and Ancient Clubhouse form the course, a harbinger of what was to come later in the week.

R & A Clubhouse