Gathering Intelligence on St. Andrews

Well, I am back from my long (cold and wet) weekend in Nashville. I will dribble in some tidbits from the reunion over the next few posts. During the trip I did some reconnaissance on St. Andrews. My cousin, "Scratch" went to St. Andrews for his 50th birthday. According to Scratch, there are two ways to do the Scotland golf trip. First, you can go the expensive route and sign up for an organized tour that includes a guaranteed tee time at the Old Course, as well as tee times at some of the other famous Scottish courses, including Carnoustie and Muirfield. You also get a bus and driver/guide and stay at nice accommodations and eat as well as you can in Scotland (haggis sounds and looks pretty nasty!). You need to make sure that you go to St. Andrews at the right time of the year because there are certain times of the year when you have to bring a mat and hit each shot off of the mat. That does not sound like the St. Andrews experience to which I aspire!

The second alternative is the "hope and pray" approach. You get to St. Andrews with your sticks, stay at the local bed and breakfast and sign up each day for the daily lottery for the next day and hope and pray you are selected. The course is open 6 days per week and closed on Sundays. You also need to be careful because the Old Course is closed for maintenance or tournaments or other sundry reasons from time to time so you should call in advance to make sure that you are not there at an inopportune time. This is today's ballot for play tomorrow. July and August are the most difficult months to get a tee time. If you do not get a tee time for the Old Course in the daily lottery, you can play the New Course, the Jubilee Course or four other courses at St. Andrews, including the newest course, the Castle Course, and sign up for the following day's lottery. If you befriend the innkeeper, you somehow may be able to "win" the daily lottery.

Before you can play the Old Course, you need to present the starter with your USGA or R&A handicap card. The maximum handicap to play the Old Course is 24 for the gentlemen and 36 for the ladies. Of course, the only way to play the Old Course is to walk with a caddie and do whatever the caddie tells you to do, no matter how ridiculous it sounds. If the caddie tells you aim 30 yards to the left of the flag and take two extra clubs, do not question the advice, just do it (and later tip the caddie well for the sound advice)! In order to play the Old Course, you need to keep the ball close to the ground, whether it is low-flying, boring (the alternate meaning, dummy!) approach shots or chip and runs from the fairways. The balloon slice (or even the high fade) is not a good shot in Scotland!

Scratch and his buddies took the "hope and pray" approach and almost did not get to play the Old Course. Somehow, on their last day in Scotland, the good innkeeper was able to get a tee time. The innkeeper, Scratch and his buddies played in beautiful weather and Scratch shot a 78, losing a couple of strokes in the deep fairway traps and in the thick gorse. When he spoke about his St. Andrews golf experience, he was euphoric.