Saints Alive

It all kicked off with a tweet 2 weeks ago “You fancy playing the Old Course?”

Turning down the chance to play the Old Course is a bit like refusing Sigourney Weavers phone number! It aint going to happen!

So after several tweets & multiple calendar checking we set the date for the 21st of March.

The we in this case being Dave K, Dave W and Andy Brown.

The 2 Dave’s & I have played before but it would be my 1st time with Andy.

Now last March we had temperatures in the high teens and clear skies, this March, well not so much.  

When I set off at 8am we had light snow, 2 degrees and a -5 windchill, but St Andrews is a good 2 ½ hours south so I assumed it would be a bit warmer down there, schoolboy error!

I arrived in St Andrews just before 11 and it was Baltic!

The wind was blowing hard and cold off the north sea, according to my I phone app it was a -8 wind chill!!

BUT it’s the Old Course!

Our tee time was 12, high noon, so we all met up at 1145 at the starters hut in front of the R&A building.

There was a real eeriness around the 1st tee and 18th green outside tournament weeks, it look incredibly bare without any stands round them.

As I looked over to the 18th green all I could see was Seve fist pumping, as I looked down to the Swilken Bridge I seen Jack stood there waving good bye as Luke & Tom looked on.


Every where you looked you saw legends and memories, you get a feeling inside you like no other you will ever feel on a golf course.

This is the home of golf and you feel that. 

You can design world class course, build brilliant holes, “buy” championships to be played on your course or claim to be the greatest course in the world, but you cant buy history or nostalgia.

I was never a St Andrews fan, I never got it.

As a fan I find it the worst of Open venues to spectate at, to tight to wander around, lack of stands and parking miles away.

But standing on the 1st tee all that changed.

I have never felt so nervous over a tee shot in my life! And lets be honest its not the hardest of opening shots! 

I had 4 thoughts A.) Don’t slice it! B.) Don’t top it! C.) Don’t put it in the burn! D.) Don’t do a Baker-Finch!

Simple eh!

So a 3 wood for safety!! Not the cleanest of hits but straight! PHEW!

I was left with a wedge in and 2 putts later I walked off with a par, happy bunny!!

What happened next I have no explanation for and struggle to believe it myself.

My first ever round on the Old Course, in awful conditions, with a borrowed set of irons I opened up with 5, yes FIVE, pars!!

All I can say is thank god I had witnesses!

I got to the turn 3 over par! 

Now St Andrews is a 9 out & 9 back, back into that cold biting wind was murder! 

3 doubles, all caused by bunkers, resulted in 9 over back 9 for a gross 84. Far from ideal but in the circumstances I happily accepted it!

Net 68, 40 points, no lost balls I had to be happy, didn’t I ?

Prior to St Andrews I was all set to buy a set of Callaway X-Hot irons, the set I borrowed in order to play was Taylor Made Rocketbladz, tough decision coming up!!

Now I have to be honest, as a course would it rank in my top ten? To be honest no. If being brutally honest it would not make my top 20, as a course.

But its more than a golf course.

In terms of a golfing experience this is second to none!

Walking onto the 1st and off the 18th is a feeling that just cant be replicated.

The 17th tee shot must be about the weirdest in golf to be fair! I wont lie I had 1 thought only in my head “DON’T HIT THE HOTEL”


But, daft as this may sound, nothing and I mean NOTHING, prepares you for the Swilken Bridge!

Its not just a burn, its just not a bridge! I used to think it was!

You stand on that bridge, and trust me you will, it’s a totally unique feeling. Hogan, Jones, Ballasteros, Watson, Nicklaus and Palmer all rush through your mind.

15th of July 2005 I cried my eyes out watching Jack Nicklaus wave good bye on that bridge, am welling up thinking about it right now.

You cant buy memories like that.

So please don’t be like I was, go and play it.

We all need magic in our lives, a round at St Andrews is just that, pure magic.

But stay out the bunkers!!