St. Andrews the Mecca of Golf - My Impressions

September 8th 2007– Notes made at the Mecca of Golf – St. Andrews!
I was fortunate to visit and pay homage at the Royal and Ancient at St. Andrews while recently on holiday with my wife in Scotland, that lovely land of Malt Whisky, Heather clad Moorland, Kilts, Old Nessie and of course, the home of the game we all love so well, Golf!
Contrary to popular belief that the game was invented here and so on, the facts appear a little different, with racial types as far removed from the Anglo Saxons, as the Ancient Egyptians, the Ancient Chinese and the Medieval Dutch laying claim to the invention of the Game of Golf. Indeed there even seems to have been some sort of similar game called “Kolven” having been played in Medieval Holland.
It also happens indeed, that the Scots Shepherds, to while away the interminable hours spent on the vast, wild and bleak moorland, watching their woolly wards, played a game involving their staffs or some sort of stick and a rounded object, probably a stone, which can, I presume be loosely compared to the game of golf as we know it. Having said all this, whatever its roots, we do know for a fact that the first organization per se around the game of golf, was the “Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers” and that the first ever competition was played at Muirfield in Scotland.
Over the last six hundred years, with the steady development of the game, St. Andrews has assumed command as the “Home of Golf” and indeed, simply and indisputably IS, the Royal & Ancient Golf Club – possibly being occasioned to some degree by the fact that this little coastal town bears the name of the Patron Saint of Scotland, St. Andrew.
As a golfer or golf enthusiast, it is necessary to visit this Hallowed Ground at least once in one’s lifetime, to pay homage, as it were, to the “Mecca” of the game. I can personally swear to getting ‘gooseflesh”, and a queer prickling sensation at the back of my neck while I padded by the entrance to the “Caddie Pavilion” and the “Starter’s cabin” – somewhat akin to the feeling one gets when one visits sanctified ground at other hallowed places in the world; for example the Vatican or even Wimbledon or Lord’s.
The town of St. Andrews is situated on a little tip of land at the eastern edge of Fife, Scotland, overlooking the North Sea. As a town, though quaint, it is rather unremarkable except as a centre for production of wool. However, its predominantly grey-brown stone buildings are today deeply impregnated with all manner of things to do with golf as a religion, no doubt partially due to the famed business acumen of the Scots, and aimed at the masses of golf-mad visitors from all over the world.
Practically every stone in this area is steeped in enormous amounts of History and Tradition, with the line of quaint, beautifully preserved shop fronts like “Bobby Jones at Auchterlonies” (located in the town), “Old Tom Morris’ Golf Shop”, “The St. Andrews Links Golf Shop” and of course, “The Old Course Shop”, all engaged in purveying vast quantities of a wide array of golf merchandise and occupying some superbly valuable real estate, overlooking the Old Course. Also notable is the Museum of Golf abutting the road on Eastern edge of the clubhouse – a lovely and highly interesting experience and very well worth visiting.
The extent of facilities on the links are surprising to the first time visitor; Two luxurious clubhouses (one of which was the scene of the (now infamous) turning away of that famed “professional golfer”, Walter Hagen, as he was not an amateur and not a member, despite being one of the most famous, skilled and flamboyant exponents of the game) – lots of unquestioning tradition and of course in hindsight, water under the (Swilcan!!??) bridge; because in its best traditions, golf was never intended by any means to be a preserve of the Elite or a Select few. However, the St. Andrews Links remains completely Public Land giving thousands of enthusiasts a chance to play the same links that their heroes have played. The famous golf club, with its five 18 hole golf courses and one 9 hole course, all of which I may add, are public courses, appears to a small degree to have ceded some of its hallowed antiquity to sybaritic modernity in the imposing presence of the famous and luxurious St. Andrews Golf Resort, Hotel and Spa to the left perpendicular of the Royal and Ancient Clubhouse and which also overlooks the First Fairway with the Ocean in the middle-distance.
Seeing it now, the casual visitor will marvel that what once was a single track hacked into gorse bushes and heather has developed into six golf courses attracting thousands if not hundreds of thousands of golf pilgrims! The “designer” of the Old Course is said to be Mother Nature herself, with so many changes of perspective and memorable details.
The beautiful old clubhouse looks (from the outside) to be exactly the same as it probably was, when the likes of Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen drew up outside it in their Rolls Royce’s, to meet in their gentlemanly clash, in the “Open” ! Today, by rather stark contrast, I observed vehicles of the likes of Honda, Audi, Volkswagen, Lexus etc parked quite possibly in the same places!
Worth mentioning is the fact that each hole here carries an unique name; ranging from the Par 4, 376 yard “Burn” going out, whose fairway is spanned by the famed “Swilcan” bridge and at whose close comes the famous “Himalayas” putting green! (As a Proud Indian I was pleased to set eyes on this, I can tell you!), to the Par 4, 411 yard “Dyke”, the Par 4, 419 yard “Ginger Beer” and “Short” (which can readily be visualized as a Par 3 of 166 yards.) The back nine coming in, has names ranging from the great Par 4, 340 yard “Bobby Jones”, the Par 4, 316 yard “Heathery” which is also the home of a rather nasty family of pot bunkers, the Par 4, 381 yard “Corner-of-the-Dyke”, the famous 455 yard Par 4 “Road” and back to the great Par 4, 357 yard “Tom Morris”!
Standing at the edge of the first tee with its sweeping view of the ocean on one side and the fairway on the other, in absolute awestruck silence, I fervently muttered a little prayer that one day I might get to “pay and play” this great course or at the very least, one of the five others, in the company of some of my good golf buddies. I was forced by the constraints of time, to turn reluctantly away from there and wandering over to the golf shops I bought some memorabilia and gifts to cement my ties to the place, taking lots of photographs all the time to create my own visual memories of the visit, prior to resuming our tour.
But I promised myself then, to be back someday and get in a round of 18, possibly washing the spirit of each hole down with a wee dram of that rich golden malt, rather in the manner of Archie – Bobby Jones’ one time golf tutor!
I state here most definitely, that St. Andrews simply must take its rightful place amongst those ”1000 places to see (as a golfer) before you tee off onto the fairway to heaven”!