St Andrews Golf

St Andrews Golf is the dream destination held by golfers from all across the globe. The thought of treading upon the famous turf as our heroes of yester-year have done before us is surely enough to give you the “yips” at the very least. With the famous Old Course counted in everybody’s top 10 golf courses to play on before they die.

St Andrews Links is believed to be the Europe’s largest complex for golf, and with six hundred years of golfing played in the Kingdom of Fife, they hold the unique hallowed turf in their hands. With almost 30 Open Championships having been staged at St Andrews there is no place quite like it. And with The Ryder Cup being held only 50 miles away at Gleneagles in 2014, where else would you want to play golf?

The Old Course

Most famous links in the world must surely be St Andrews Old Course, Scotland. Originally the golf was played with eleven holes, thus a round was twenty two holes, as the same holes were used on the outward as on the inward. The “course” was a thin cutting evolved mostly by nature herself, it was poor quality and good for little else except for the grazing sheep. And golf too of course.

1764 marked a change in the history of golf when a round was reduced from twenty two holes to eighteen by The Society of St Andrews Golfers heralded the way forward, which must have been a relief to participating golfers who were playing outwards as they may well come face to face with inward bound golfers playing on the same green.

Born in 1821 in St Andrews and perhaps one of the most famous historic links to St Andrews golf is Old Tom Morris. As most enthusiasts of The Open Championship will be able to tell you, Old Tom Morris was the winner of the trophy on no fewer than four occasions. Tom was a talented ball and club maker and did a fair job of green keeping and course design too, as many golf courses in Scotland will confirm. His name pops up in more golf courses than you can shake a (golf) stick at.

However, it’s The Old Course in St Andrews that most people have come to associate with him. Lured back to his home town from Prestwick were he was working as the green-keeper in 1865, he soon licked it all into shape. Initially he began the task of widening the greens followed by the fairways. The secret of his success was to use a liberal amount of sand during the winter months on the greens. That and back breaking honest work I expect.

The Castle Course

The Castle Course was opened by HRH The Duke of York in 2008. It sits on a rugged and sometimes wild cliff enjoying the panorama of St Andrews. It holds a challenge for any golfer and was designed by David Kidd and can be played as part of a St Andrews golf package, or just stand alone golf. An exiting new-comer in links golf.

The New Course

The New Course at St Andrews is not really new at all, not in the overall scheme of things. Opened in 1895  it was to be known as The New Course as the original took on the name The Old Course, and had previously been called “St Andrews Links”.  Once again Old Tom Morris worked some magic here, together with his assistant David Honeyman. It’s classic Morris in it’s layout, but his shovel and wheel barrow were most probably long retired by then, and an civil engineer from Edinburgh was called in to help.

The Jubilee Course

The Jubilee Course named to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897. All six links golf courses associated with St Andrews Links will always be compared with their big brother (or is it big sister?) along at The Old Course. However The Jubilee is considered by many golf enthusiasts to be a tough old bird herself.

The Eden Course

The Eden Course came about because shortly prior to the WWI in 1913, such was the demand for golf, that the three present courses for playing any St Andrews golf could not cope with it. Up to the mark stepped Harry S Colt, who like a couple of his famous predecessors like to include a bunker or two in his design.

The Strathtyrum Course

The Strathtyrum Course has a mere 15 bunkers for you to fall foul of – generally considered to be less challenging that that of other courses in the vicinity. Opened for business in 1993 it was the first new 18 hole course in eighty years to test the thousands of golfers who come to play some St Andrews golf every month.

The Balgove Course

The Balgove Course is a delight for family’s and junior players, this very much family friendly course was re-designed in 1993 and has wider greens and shallow bunkers for the younger (and not so young) to develop their skills before being faced with “life in the fast lane”.

St Andrews golf is not confined to the above courses, there is some fabulous golf to be experienced near by.

 Kingsbarns Golf Links

Kingsbarns Golf Links has been part of a merry-go-round in the area since 1793 when The Kingsbarns Golfing Society first leased the land from a local estate. It was later returned to farming on two occasions, once in the 1850′s and then again as part of  the “dig for victory” campaign. The stunning links course was designed in 2000 by Kyle Phillips and Mark Parsinnen and enjoys a partnership with The Old Course and Carnoustie in the hosting of The Dunhill Links Championship.

The Duke’s

The Duke’s Course is the Championship Golf Course belonging to The Old Course Hotel. In 2006 Tim Liddy designed and added five new holes to The Duke’s to add to the obvious maturity already found there. Situated in a superb position overlooking this amazing coast-line, The Dukes Course must surely be on the list of golf courses to play in Scotland for serious golfers.

Torrance

Fairmont Luxury Hotel features both The Torrance and The Kittocks.  This is golf on the edge good style, as you will find yourself on the cliff-top, and while not classified as links golf, it’s pretty near to it.

Kittocks

The Kittocks Course is a feature of The Fairmont Hotel and was previously known as The Devlin.  Denis Griffiths and Bruce Devlin the Australian Open Champion were the architects along with a little help from their friend Gene Sarazen.

Plenty for you to think about as you dream about playing golf in the Kingdom. Most serious golfers dream about taking a golf vacation in St Andrews at least one time. There are golf breaks on offer for the variety of accommodation in St Andrews, from Spa Hotels to our fabulous friendly Guest Houses. St Andrews is a beautiful place for a holiday with many historical sites to check out as well as the numerous golf shops.

Now is the time to stop just dreaming about it, it’s  the time to be able to say I’ve played on some of the top courses, I’ve played St Andrews golf.