In this piece, we invited one of our recent The Experience Golf guests – Roger Hermiston, to write about his trip with us at The 152nd Open, and playing some of St Andrews’ most iconic golf courses. Here is what he had to say…
I’d signed up for a week-long tour with the elite sporting travel company The Experience Golf, and I was in for a real treat. First, prized admission to watch the final round of The Open at Royal Troon, then a journey over to the east coast of Scotland and the golden opportunity of playing four fantastic links courses in and around St Andrews.
I’ve watched many a golf tournament on TV but never actually attended a ‘major’. To follow these golfing greats at ground level, experience their aura and feel the atmosphere out on the course was very exciting. I did make the journey to Troon’s most famous hole, The Postage Stamp, a 120-yard destroyer of so many dreams. But I quickly discovered there was greater value and better viewing when lingering at certain areas of the course where the tees and the greens of a cluster of holes were in close proximity, and where there was grandstand seating (13th, 14th and 15th from memory).
I saw snatches of the leaders – Schauffele, Rose, Scheffler, Brown – but it was great fun (and there were fewer crowds) following the progress of Joe Dean for half a dozen holes. This was the romantic story of The Open, because 30-year-old ‘journeyman’ pro Joe, from Sheffield, has had to supplement his earnings away from the professional golf circuit – in the somewhat humdrum job, you might say, of a delivery driver for the supermarket chain Morrisons!
I could get reasonably up close and personal with Joe, who was distinctive in a big white bobble hat to ward off a cold wind, I watched him swing strongly out of the thick rough, and audaciously turn his putter round to play left-handed when his ball was on the very edge of a deep bunker he couldn’t get down into for a stance. He would finish with a one over par 72 and a highly creditable placing of 25th, meriting a purse of $137,600.
Would enough have been learned from Joe and the golfing greats at Troon to better equip this 17-handicapper to tackle the four formidable golf courses in Fife? Well, first up was the latest of the St Andrews links, the Castle Course, opened in 2008, perched on a cliff top with simply breathtaking views out over St Andrews Bay and back into the town.
I struggled initially – the fairways could be generous but the rough was long and the bunkers deep – but I perked up to play the back nine in 43 strokes, eight over par, playing to my handicap.
The signature par three 17th is a terrifying all or nothing hole, played across a ravine on the edge of the cliffs. Yet I played a well-struck five wood left of the green, from where it rolled nicely down the slope onto the putting surface. Two puts from twenty feet and I had a very satisfying par! I then followed that up with an equally gratifying par five on the scenic final hole (named Rock & Spindle), with the bay just below us and the sun beginning to set in a vast, gorgeous blue sky dotted with black and white clouds.
If playing the Castle Course was an encounter with a force of nature, playing the iconic Old Course was a journey into the very heart of golf’s history. It was here in St Andrews that Old Tom Morris and his son Tommy blazed a golfing trail in Victorian Britain that would ignite worldwide.
My three accomplished playing partners were Jamie, the professional at Effingham Golf Club in Surrey, Elliot, his old schoolmate and an elegant scratch golfer, and Andrew, a rangy left-hander from Chicago who had won his place on the ballot system. None of us had played the Old Course before, and we were all absurdly nervous as we prepared to tee off.
After spraying my drive wide left, I then deposited an eight-iron into the Swilcan burn. An indifferent chip to just off the green, plus three putts, meant I finished up with a seven on one of the ‘Old Lady’s easier holes!
Then I – we – relaxed, and threw off history’s shackles. On a calm, bright day, the Old Course actually felt less of a stiff challenge than the Castle Course two days earlier. A lovely up-and-down gave me a par on the second (named Dyke) and then to my huge delight I birdied the fifth (Hole O’Cross Out). I was on the outer edge of one of these vast greens in two, followed by two putts from about fifty yards.
I parred the 16th (Corner of the Dyke), and was then happy enough to take a bogey at the great Road Hole, scene of disasters for even the very best.
Like thousands before us, both paupers and princes of the game, we then posed for our photograph on the little stone Swilcan Bridge before tackling the 18th. I hit a nice second shot onto the green and walking towards it, into that veritable amphitheatre of the Valley of Sin and enormous putting surface, imagining I was playing the last hole of The Open itself, was almost a mystical experience.
The third course, Dumbarnie, is the baby of them all. It was opened in May 2020 just as Covid hit, but visitors started to flock here once restrictions were lifted. English Ryder Cup hero and golf designer Clive Clark created it, and it was quickly acclaimed as a ‘masterpiece of golf design’ by Golf Monthly.
Sitting some 80 feet above sea level on a magnificent promontory, Dumbarnie has several elevated tees which command extraordinary views over the Firth of Forth, and many of the greens are close to the water.
The starter at the first tee bade us welcome with an offering of a wee dram of Loch Lomond malt whisky. Not necessarily because of the alcohol, but after a good first nine - with three pars - too many of my shots began to go astray. Not so my partners Jamie and Elliot who turned in outstanding rounds. Elliot eagled the par-5 7th, and on the 13th Jamie hit an audacious 300-yard approach shot with his driver, thus setting up a birdie.
The last of my golfing challenges was the Kingsbarns course, opened in 2000 in its current incarnation, but with a golfing history on this land dating back to the 1790s. Kingsbarns has an elegant clubhouse and is a beautifully maintained links course, with simply immaculate fairways and greens. It has gorgeous sea views from every hole as you play along almost two miles of North Sea coastline. Jamie declared that it was the best course he had ever played; it has regularly been ranked one of the top 100 courses in the world, and has co-hosted the prestigious Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
A scary hole is the par 3 15th, with a long carry over crashing waves and rocks on to an enormous green. I did the hard work and landed my ball on the green, but then three putted for a bogey. Equally nerve-wracking is the elevated downhill approach to the final hole, with a wide burn waiting to gobble up any misdirected shot. Fortunately, I hit a lovely nine-iron close to the flag to leave me with a great memory of my four rounds of superb links golf.
Hats off to The Experience Golf for making this such a memorable week, with such smooth organisation and splendid help and guidance at every turn.
