Day #125 - St. Andrews - British Open Golf Championship

Swilcan Bridge - 18th Hole at St. Andrews

St. Andrews - 18th Hole

Saturday, July 17th

The pictures posted today were taken from the internet. These are the only pictures posted to date that I have not taken personally. Cameras were not allowed in the course - bummer. I couldn't just write the entry today like it was a travel day. St. Andrews demands respect - and I am trying to give it due justice.

Fired up for today. We get to go to the 'Home of Golf" - St. Andrews. The Old Course - the Swilcan Bridge on the 18th, the Road Hole on the 17th, the connecting greens, links golf. Jack Niclaus won here. Tiger Woods won the last 2 times the Open was played here.

A little background on the British Open. There are 14 courses in the UK that have hosted the British Open Championship in the past. There are currently 9 of these courses that still fall in the rotation. These are: Scotland (St. Andrews, Carnoustie, Troon, Turnberry, Muirfield), England (Royal Liverpool (Hoylake), Litham & St. Annes, Birkdale, and St. George's (Sandwich)).

The 5 courses no longer used in the rotation are: Prestwich (the first 12 Opens), Deal, Royal Portrush (Northern Ireland), Musselburgh, and Prince's Sandwich. Many of these are great courses, but for logistic purposes or because the courses are not long enough - they have fallen off.

We took a train from Edinburgh to St. Andrews about 9am. It's a 1 hour, 10 minute train ride. We chose to commute from Edinburgh because the hotels in St. Andrews were either booked or too expensive. It worked out great from Eindburgh - a ton of other people were doing the same thing as us. On arrival at Luechars train station in St. Andrews, we took a shuttle bus to the course. They had things well organized. There were a number of buses lined up. We were immediately shuttled to the course. It was probably the most efficiently run course setup and transporation system that I have seen.

On arrival, we just started walking. We came out on the 16th fariway. We walked about 50 yards and were standing near the 17th tee. We could look out and see the Old Course Hotel and how the players must hit their tee shots over the hotel into the 17th fairway. Outstanding! I can't believe I'm standing here looking the Road Hole at St. Andrews!

We were early - so the contenders weren't teeing off for several hours. There had been a wind delay on Friday as well; therefore, the leaders were only set to go off at 4:40pm. We decided to walk the course.

Now, St. Andrews is not necessarily the greatest course for viewing a golf event. It's old and wasn't setup for such a thing. It's a simple layout. 7 holes out on 1 side, a circle turn with Holes 8-11, then the remaining holes come back on the other side. 14 of the holes share a green. There are only 4 holes with their own separate greens (Hole #1, #18, #9, #17). On most courses, spectators can stand on both sides of the fairway and surround the green. At St. Andrews, spectators can only view from the outside loop (called the Red Route). Often times, the greens are pretty far away as you watch from the side. They do let spectators cross the fairways to get to the other side, but they cannot stand between the fairways.

But, just the fact that we were at St. Andrews, we were able to get over the viewing angles pretty quickly. The weather was overcast. We experienced a couple bouts of rain showers. They were brief however. We followed Rory McIlroy for a little while. He's an up and coming star on the tour. The crowds were heavy - but I didn't feel like it was quite as bad as other tournaments I've attended. We found a great spot near the 7th green where we could see about 4 holes. We stayed here for quite a while. My favorite place on any golf course is watching at the greens or taking a position at a Par 3 so you can view the entire hole. Our position near the 7th green allowed us to do both. We could see the Par 3 - 11th, the green on #7, the green on #10, and the tee shot on #8.

Tiger teed off around 2:30pm. We followed him for several holes. As I mentioned to Randy, Tiger's ability to focus and his sheer mental approach to the game is the reason I enjoy watching him. Unfortunately, he would play very average today. It was frustrating to know he would not figure in the outcome. This always makes things more exciting for me.

The leader going into today was something called - Louis Oosthuizen. I've never heard of the guy. A South African golfer - that I later found out was ranked 45th in the world coming into the tourney. Randy and I both expected this guy to fade. But - he didn't. 'Oosy' as we called him - was solid as a rock. This guy played a 3 under third round to bring his score to -15 going into the final round. He led Paul Casey by 4 shots going into Sunday. The next golfer was at -8 (he was 7 shots clear of the 3rd place golfer).

I was a little disappointed going into Saturday evening just because we were likely to miss the drama of a major championship. Still - we're at the British Open in St. Andrews - things could be worse. We stayed until the last twosome made it through Hole #17 and took a train back into Edinburgh.

Another quick night and we would be back at the course on Sunday.