Our time in St. Andrews was marked by sunny days, links golf, bustling streets and a few nights out in a very friendly and popular village. The streets were always busy with tourists, golfers, shoppers and the pleasant folk of the Auld Grey Toon.
We visited the ruins of St. Andrews Cathedral and stopped by Old Tom & Young Tom Morris’ graves, spent some time 
walking along the West Sands, hit the British Golf Museum and found a few spots for dinner in town and all were very welcoming. Of course they were…we are bringing American dollars to a post Brexit Scotland and what could be better than that.
I found St. Andrews to be a fun and interesting place but was amazed at just how international it is. And not everyone is a Scot working in the shops. Our first stop was to load up on some single malt to help our creaky bodies get through the week and wouldn’t you know the girl and guy manning the St. Andrews Wine Shop were both American…so strange. Anyway he knew his malts and the Benromach 15 was delightful.
The Dunvegan was a great place to stop, only two doors up from our place, and we had both a nice lunch and dinner there. Of course the place is filled with golfers, mostly visitors with few locals but we found that the short walk down to the Jigger Inn was well worth it and seemed to be more of a locals hangout.
Tuesday morning had us shopping and we stopped at the new practice area that the St. Andrews Links Trust has installed for the thousands of would be links players. Big Bro had to work out his draw that had become an unreliable hook before our afternoon tee time on the New Course.
The New Course isn’t exactly new. Old Tom laid out this gem in 1895 on links land that borders the more famous Old Course and while it doesn’t host The Open it’s still a fun course. And the Links Trust has taken steps to make playing all their courses easier with a new St. Andrews Links Clubhouse that sits next to the first tees of the New and Jubilee course and has a fine restaurant, golf shop and locker rooms.
Once again we had warm temps and brilliant sunshine for our afternoon tee time and yes, we were playing in shorts. Who would have thought that we would be stowing our rain gear and sweaters to strut around St. Andrews in shorts and just a golf shirt. Old Tom must have blessed us.
The New was fun and we were still trying to find that links game of rolling it up on the green and while George was mastering that game better than I it was I who came out ahead again on the New.
I will say this, golf on the links at St. Andrews is a truly different game. Yes, links golf is very different from the American game but it is more than that. With shared fairways and greens and with the New, Old and Jubilee all jammed together on virtually the same piece of linksland it makes for a congested bit of golf.
A wayward drive easily lands in an adjoining fairway (or rough for that matter) and that can give you a decent shot but more likely your standing in the way of another group of golfers trying to play their own fairway and don’t need an interloper slowing them down. Yes, I experienced that first hand but I found the players and especially the caddies to be friendly and understanding as we all were in the same boat.
Enough said…but there’s links golf and links golf at St. Andrews. They are two different experiences.
We weren’t selected in the Old Course Lottery again for Wednesday so we headed back down the coast to our new favorite spot, Crail. We arranged with Graeme, the pro to get back there and play Gil Hanse’s Craighead Course and we weren’t disappointed.
Opened in 1998 as Hanse’s first course outside the states the Craighead is a delight. Perched above the Balcomie Course it has views of the sea for miles and miles while still being a links course.
It had fast, firm, wide fairways and deep revetted bunkers but Hanse made it so very playable. The greens reflect what a skilled designer and a great piece of land can do. There was no lack of trouble in the surrounds and plenty of slope but none so ridiculous that they were unplayable.
Of course, the Sun Gods of Golf continued to play in warm sunshine but a stiff wind had us thanking the greenskeeper for greens that were the opposite of Oakmont. They have a practice of keeping the greens between 7-9 on the Stimpmeter or else we’d be having a few “Dustin Johnson” moments on each and every green.
We loved the layout, the views, the weather and the fact that Hanse built such a playable course that even hackers like us could make it around and have a ball. It’s a great compliment to the Balcomie Course and the two day ticket is a steal, thanks Graeme.
Little brother was able to back up his win at the New, thanks to the match play format, George’s sore hip and a few monster putts. Click here for the video evidence.
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