St. Andrews

Here's a review about St Andrews the ancestral 'home of golf' that - apart from these two early mentions - promises to contain nothing whatsoever about golf courses. It's a small town steeped in medieval history situated in the East Neuk of Fife - the peninsula shaped like a dog's head that lies about a third of the way up Scotland, jutting out between the Firths of Forth and Tay. If you look at the map of Fife as if it is indeed a dog's head, St Andrews is situated on the coast about where its eye would be. As well as being famous for the aforesaid ball-and-club based game, it also has Scotland's oldest university (and also one of the country's smallest ...  Read the complete review

Standing on the first tee at St Andrews you look forward onto a vast wide open space. An impossible to miss fairway which seems to stretch beyond anyone's driving range. Behind you is the Royal and Ancient clubhouse where the rules of this great game are still administered and verified to this day. To your left is the shop of Tom Morris Open champion in the 19th century and a landmark which continues to draw visitors from all over the world. Beyond that the town of St Andrews with the oldest university in Scotland and to your right the waves of the North Sea sweep onto the shore of the beach. For beauty, history and the challenge of the golf course you are as ...  Read the complete review

There isn't a place like this in golf. Even the Americans admit it. You stand on the first tee, and you get an incomparable thrill. Part of this is history; part is the fantastic anticipation of what is come, part of it is indefinable atmosphere. If you can get your first tee shot away, you have done well. But it's also an extraordinary mixture of hallowedness and common place. The good townsfolk of St. Andrews walk their dogs across the course on the way to the beach, and appear to reackon that it's perfectly normal to have such a revered patch of ground in their midst. For detail on this course I would refer Dooyoo readers first to ...  Read the complete review

I have been fortunate enough to have played the Old Course at St Andrews on three occasions. This has been in near perfect conditions and also in pretty appalling windy conditions. Now first let me clear up any doubt as to the standard of golf I play. I am only a 12 handicapper. I am fairly long off the tee, but can be very wayward, and usually manage to recover from the rough reasonably. I have played golf for 25 years now and consider myself a reasonable judge of golf courses. St Andrews is just simply too difficult for anyone playing at or below my level. Tiger Woods may be able to pick out a 12ft square landing area 200 yards down the fairway, but ...  Read the complete review

Golf has been played here for approximately 600 years but the course as it now is came into being around 1850. It is a public course run by St Andrews Links Trust and has hosted various competitions over the years - ie, the Open Championship (26 times), the Walker Cup and the Alfred Dunhill Cup. The Old Course is situated in St Andrews which is about an hour’s drive from Edinburgh and 1.5 hours from Glasgow. On the first tee you will find the clubhouse of the R&A directly behind you with the North Sea situated on your right. A feeling of history surrounds you. A daunting tee shot if you don’t like playing to an audience as you are aware ...  Read the complete review