The Castle Course at St. Andrews Links is the only one of the seven courses operated by The St. Andrews Links Trust that is not located along the sandy beach adjacent to the town center. It sits just about three miles south on a rise that offers great views of the town and coast.
David McKay Kidd designed this track along a cliff edge and ridges that are very different in character to the much flatter land and seaside dunes at the main course complex.
Just south of it sit two other modern course built in the 2000’s. Sam Torrance designed the first cliff side course attached to the St. Andrews Bay Golf Resort. It’s now a Fairmont property and also sports a second course designed by Aussie pro Bruce Devin.
I played my first round of golf in Scotland on that Torrance course in May 2005.
My work had me in the UK often back then, mainly in England, sometimes Wales but never in Scotland. After an early Friday business meeting in Newcastle-on-Tyne in England’s north, I set off to visit the land of my grandparents, George and Elsie, and with any luck, sneak in a round on the the Old Course.
I chose to drive the A1 up the southeast coast of Scotland and then swing through Edinburgh, cross the Forth Road Bridge and then northeast to St. Andrews This route clocked out at 180 miles so I thought I’d be in St. Andrews in three to four hours. Foolish me.
The A1, a main roadway connecting England to its Union partner is a road of many faces. Leaving Newcastle, it’s a multi-lane, divided high speed road. Cross the national border and it eventually winds down to a two track lane with speed limits for long stretches down to 30 mph. 30 mph was a challenge to maintain in one spot as I came to a full stop while waiting for a flock of sheep to mosey across the road!
After snaking through Edinburgh city center without the aid of GPS, I found my way to the luxury hotel, St. Andrews Bay, that my resourceful travel agent, Janet, has booked for me. It only took five and a half hours.
What were the prospects of a Saturday round on the Old Course? The chap I spoke with at St. Andrews Links was courteous but not hopeful. A full tee sheet for Saturday, and no golf on Sunday at the Old Course. I could go down and wait at the starter’s shack for an opening to materialize in the event some pre-booked golfer didn’t show.
Waiting for who knows how long with no guarantee of a chance to play wasn’t too enticing. I opted to go out mid-morning on the Torrance course and it’s there I got my first taste of Scottish Golf.
This was Memorial Day weekend and the family back home were picnicking in sunny 80 degree weather. If it was 50 degrees when I teed off, I was lucky, and there was only a light rain. That didn’t last long. The rain increased and it started to tilt – horizontal rain, leaden skies, playing as a single. It was glorious!
Great views of the town and the curvature of the beach, along with rain and wind and cold make up my memories as my golf game wasn’t worth remembering. More of the same on Sunday. I’d had an initiation into a very different kind of golf and I was eager to return with my brother Jeff in tow. That took eleven years but we finally made it in 2016.
Well, this has been a little diversion, so back to the day at hand.
After my defeat at the Castle Course we headed to the Jigger Inn, a cozy little pub nestled right on the outside of the elbow of the Road Hole.
Then off to the Keys Bar but we needed to make a stop along the way. The Tom Morris Shop and The Open Shop sit side by side just across from the 18th green of the Old Course. We had dropped some significant cash in there in past visits and we were determined to do so again. Of course we were in need of new golf shirts, we only had five or six dozen each back home.
Back in 2005, at my first visit, I spent some serious dinero at that location but it wasn’t in either The Open Shop or the Tom Morris Shop. The space these stores now occupy was then devoted to an Edinburgh Woolen Mills shop. I purchased a lovely lemon colored cashmere sweater for my beautiful wife.
Upon my return, I didn’t get the response from her I expected when she opened the package.
“I don’t look good in yellow,” she said “ take it back”.
I’m buying perfume at the duty free shop this trip.
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