A recent round at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia (https://bit.ly/2B2p8ib) inspired me to write this Yelp review for my experience at the Home of Golf: St Andrews Links in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland. Why? Because the rounds felt similar, walking with caddies and all, on a historic course. I'm an avid golfer and to date, the round with my father on the Old Course remains the most memorable round of golf I've played. It was like a dream or fantasy round to me. I'll remember it for the rest of my life.
We played both the Old Course and the New Course. We played the New Course first on Sunday morning, July 1, 2007 and then the Old Course the next day, Monday morning, July 2, 2007. Yep, I'm writing a review in 2018 for rounds of golf I played over 11 years ago. I didn't have a Yelp account back then and Yelp didn't exist in Scotland yet either. I write this review and post these photos for posterity.
The Old Course is the oldest golf course in the world. The first rounds were played on the course in the 1400s. The New Course isn't all that new, but compared to the Old Course, it's roughly 400 years newer; it opened for play in 1895.
My sister and I thought playing golf at St Andrews would be a great birthday present for my dad, so that's how this golf trip came to be. My sister, through a coworker, found the perfect accommodations for us. It was a bed and breakfast located walking within distance of the Old Course's first tee, on a road called The Scores. In addition to being mere minutes walk away from the Old Course, the house had an incredible view of the North Sea. The house belonged to Anne Marie Hippisley. She was a wonderful host who treated our family like her own.
I was in charge of booking the rounds and the caddies. I booked everything online through St Andrews Links' website (https://www.standrews.com/) and via email. I had to print, complete, sign, scan, and attach forms to emails to St Andrews. This included a "Provisional Tee Reservation" form dated September 21, 2006 with two rounds, total payment due November 30, 2006, and signed by Nicola Galloway:
1. July 1, 2007 at 7:36 AM on New Course - £130 for 2 golfers
2. July 2, 2007 at 7:50 AM on Old Course - £250 for 2 golfers
The British pound was quite strong in 2007. £1.00 was equivalent to about $2.00 (today £1 is only about $1.30). So at the time, the rounds on the New Course cost me about £65 (or about $130) per person and on the Old Course, about £125 (or about $250) per person. Compare that to prices today (in 2018) where a round on the Old Course currently runs £180 (or about $230) per person. For an American, it's less expensive to play St Andrews now than when I played 11 years ago. Note we played during the high season, April-October, when prices are the highest.
If you play at St Andrews during the winter, you have to carry around a mat and you are supposed to hit all of your fairway shots off of the mat and not off the actual course. It's lame, but it's needed to protect the course during the winter months. According to St Andrews Links, about 45,000 rounds are played on the Old Course annually (https://bit.ly/2RM2QrZ). That is insane.
I can't remember if I was required to book a round on one of St Andrews Links' other courses if I wanted to book a round on the Old Course. I remember we had to do that when we played at Pebble Beach. To play Pebble Beach, not only did we have to book a round on another course at Pebble Beach Resorts (we picked Spyglass Hill - to date, the toughest course I've played), but we also had to stay one night at the Lodge at Pebble Beach. St Andrews Links has seven courses. In addition to the Old and New Courses, there are the Castle, Jubilee, Eden, Strathtyrum, and Balgove Courses.
I emailed my caddie request form on January 6, 2007 and received a response in less than 24 hours. I was told the caddie manager would do his best to fulfill my request, but "as caddies are self employed, they cannot be guaranteed." At the time, caddies cost £40 per round (not including gratuity) and trainee caddies cost £25 per round. Today, those prices are £50 and £35, respectively.
I was paired up with an American caddie named Oliver Horovitz. He was an undergrad at Harvard at the time. He ended up writing a New York Times bestseller entitled "An American Caddie in St. Andrews: Growing Up, Girls, and Looping on the Old Course," released in 2014 (https://amzn.to/2QIvMnF). My dad had an English caddie named Ben. They were our caddies for both rounds. My caddie at East Lake, Jerry Rodger, who is from St Andrews, is actually friends with Ollie. What a coincidence and a small world.
Ollie asked me what my 150-yard club was and he took it from there. I hit a decent drive off the first tee on the Old Course - the most pressure-packed of my life with so many people watching - and recall the fairways being thin. I ended up shooting a 101 (with 2 pars) on the New Course and a 97 (with 5 pars) on the Old Course. read more