In case you missed my incessant tweets, overabundance of Instagram posts, or fanboy podcast regarding my recent buddies trip to St. Andrews a few weeks ago, I’m going to do my best to summarize it all here. First of all, let me note that this is not an advertisement, and is in no way sponsored, although it is certainly going to read like Visit Scotland sent this over word by word for me to post. A few of you asked for a breakdown of our trip, the courses, the logistics, and the stories, etc. Hopefully these posts will inspire someone to do a similar trip, and help with some of the planning if so. I’m going to try to break the trip down in separate posts for the sake of length. This one will focus on arrival into St. Andrews, getting on the Old Course, as well as our experience playing it twice.
Logistics/Accomodations
Our trip consisted of four bros (my buddies Scott Bishop, Leif Mahler, and Chris Toomer), eight rounds, spread out over five days. We based ourselves at Agnes Blackadder Hall, near the Road Hole, and a short 10 minute walk to the first tee at the Old Course. The rate we paid was 750 pounds for five nights, for two rooms, so it was 75 pounds per night per room, or 37.50 per person. This dorm more than got the job done, although the sleeping quarters were a bit tight. It’s a walkable distance to the old town, the bars, restaurants, shops, and of course, the golf. The way I see it, there is no reason to splurge on a room, as if you’re anything like us, you will spend next to no time there.
The hardest part of the trip was picking out the dates. As our foursome was coming from Hawai’i, Chicago, Columbus, and Amsterdam, it was tough to plan flights into Edinburgh to arrive on the same day, much less at the same time. I met up with Scott and toured Edinburgh for the day on a Wednesday, but basically we couldn’t stop talking and thinking about the golf that was ahead. We weren’t booked to play our first round until Friday, but we called an “OMAHA” at the line and picked Leif up at the airport on Thursday morning, and told him we were going straight to St. Andrews without a tee time to see what we could make happen. With our fourth a clean 13 hours away from landing, we picked up our rental car (a must for a Scotland golf trip), and made the hour and ten minute trek to St. Andrews on the wrong side of the road.
Getting on The Old Course
We checked into our digs, put on some gear, and strutted over to the Old Course like we owned the place. We couldn’t help but notice how many people were standing around watching players finish on the 18th green, and tee off on the first. This would come into play later.
(Edit: I should mention there are other ways to get on the Old Course rather than just walking up. You can book tee times WAY in advance (I think we’re already past that window for 2016), or you can enter the ballot 48 hours in advance. We struck out all three days on the ballot. Note that the Old Course is closed on Sundays. Also, Ru Macdonald from the Scottish Golf Podcast is a great source for any questions about getting on the Old Course. His advice was what helped us get on.)
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The first stop was the Old Course Pavilion to at least inquire about our chances of getting on the Old Course. We knew it was a long shot, but we figured it was worth at least asking, and getting to know some of the staff that we would be relying on to fulfill this lifelong dream of walking these hallowed grounds. The news we got was what we expected: No chance of getting off today. However, we were surprised at the overall response we got:
Starter: “How long are you guys here?”
Me: “Four more days.”
Starter: “Where else are you guys playing?”
Me: “Kingsbarns tomorrow morning, St. Andrews New Course Saturday afternoon, St. Andrews Jubilee Sunday morning, Crail Sunday afternoon, and Carnoustie Monday afternoon.”
Starter: “OK, if you want to play the Old Course, here’s what you should do. Come tomorrow super early, around 4:30, get your name in, and by the time you get back from Kingsbarns, you’ll be at the top of the priority list.”
Rather than simply turning us away, the starter gave us invaluable advice that would pay off in a big way in the near future. We thanked him, and asked what our chances were of getting off on one of the other courses in the mean time. He told us to head down to the New Course and ask the starter there.
We tentatively approached the starter’s station down the road a bit at the New Course, and were not encouraged by the starter’s initial reaction when we asked what our chances were. He leaned back, looked at the clock, and made a face like he was really uncertain.
Starter: “Hmmm…. I mayyyy be able to get you out, but it’s going to be like, 30 minutes or so.”
We looked around at each other like he was crazy.
“Ummmm that is absolutely no problem.”
30 minutes later, we were playing the New Course. But we’ll save that for another post. You want to hear about the Old Course.
Friday Morning
I picked up Toomer late in Edinburgh on Thursday night, and we shut the lights off at the dorm at 12:00, alarms set for 4:00. We sprung out of bed, threw on some jeans and hoodies, and drove the short 4 minute drive to the Old Course to line up. We were beaten by one gentlemen named Kyle from Michigan (it’s alllllll Americans out there), but were proud of being numbers 2-5 in line. About 8 more people were lined up behind us by the time the doors opened at 6, and we were putting our names in at about 6:02. We had accepted the fact that we were all probably going to get split up, and we were fine with that. We were not ready for the news that was about to hit us.
Starter: “This never happens, but you guys aren’t going to believe this. We had a foursome cancel at 6:30, and you guys can play as a foursome if you want it.”
At this point I need to acknowledge that we had prepaid for our 9:10 tee time at Kingsbarns to the tune of 225 pounds, easily the most expensive round of the trip. Their shop didn’t open until 8:00, so we had no idea if we could move the tee time. The staff at St. Andrews ensured us that the Kingsbarns guys would accomodate us, and asked if we could be ready by 6:20 for the 6:30 tee time. Remember we are not dressed for golf. We accepted.
What ensued was the most panicked 14 minutes I’ve ever had in my golfing life. We sprinted…. sprinted to the car, past the caddie barn, who was shouting out catcalls to us like we were wearing miniskirts past a construction site. We jumped in the car, and I drove as aggressively as I possibly could have (remember that I’m driving on the opposite side of the road for the second day of my life). We parked the car in front of the dorm, sprinted in, and threw on the first clothes we could find. Three of us made it back to the car by about 6:14. But there is no sign of Leif. We are freaking out. WHERE THE HELL IS LEIF!?
Three excruciating minutes go by. The starting staff couldn’t have been nicer, but they made it very clear that we would not be playing if we weren’t ready by 6:20. Finally, at 6:17, Leif emerges in a dead sweat out of the dorm. He got lost trying to leave the hotel, and honestly contemplated running through a fire exit, which would have sounded the alarm.
Back around the corners we went, screeched up to the tee box, and made it at 6:20 on the nose. Ten minutes later (and only 170 pounds later), we were off at the Old Course.
The Old Course, Round 1
We had the benefit of being off so early that there was no one around to watch our opening tee shots. But there’s enough going on to for sure make you nervous. The course itself, I did not find all that difficult, but it was very clear from the beginning that you need experience around this course to master it. There’s space on almost every single hole to miss it as far left as you want, but the further left you go, the worse your angle to the flag. Also, I learned the hard way that reaching for the driver on every middle length par 4 is not the solution. The last shot you want off very firm turf is a 60 yard shot over a small valley in front of the green.
I’ve watched a lot of Scotland golf on TV, and still for the life of me did
Source: https://nolayingup.com/blog/scotland-golf-trip-old-course-logistics-etc