Letter from St. Andrews: A Glimpse of Seven
I’m sitting in a little trailer, high atop a hill precisely two miles east of the center of St. Andrews. The trailer is unfurnished except for a simple table and three chairs occupied by me and two gentlemen with whom I’ve come to chat. Our conversation has barely begun when one gets a call on […]
Letter from St. Andrews: Shinnecockemamie
It’s a cold, grey day in the old grey town, so my thoughts stray happily across the Pond toward posh, breezy Southampton, N.Y., to the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club and the approaching 104th U.S. Open. And there’s a goofy smile on my face. To paraphrase our favorite son, Bobby Jones, you could take out of […]
Letter from St. Andrews: The Auld Grey Toon
Well, we’ve made it to the Auld Grey Toon, but not to our auld grey hoose. Renovation of our apartment—sorry, our “flat”—proceeds apace, which is to say thoroughly behind schedule and riotously over budget. As I write this, the place is uninhabitable—a grim, hollowed-out hovel from which you might expect a grizzled G.I. to emerge, […]
Letter from St. Andrews: Is Eight Enough?
Earlier this year, the St. Andrews Links Trust announced that its No. 7 course, currently under construction on a clifftop two miles southeast of town, would be named the Castle, in recognition of the fact that a medieval stronghold had occupied the approximate site of the intended 9th and 18th greens. The name was one […]
Letter from St. Andrews: Blessings of Eighth Place
Two hundred yards or so behind the 18th green of the Old Course, on a broad street called the Scores, sits a sturdy stone townhouse with a brass plaque at its entrance. Inscribed on the plaque are the words “The Old Course Experience.” “Could this possibly be what it suggests?” I wondered on the day […]
Letter from St. Andrews: A Closed Open
I’m not sure why—maybe I haven’t fully and truly expatriated, or maybe it’s just that I’m a congenital jackass—but I get uncommon pleasure from tweaking my fellow St. Andreans with a question. When the 19th-hole conversation turns to the game’s majors, I ask, “So who do you like in the LCSE?” “What?” they say. “The […]
Letter from St. Andrews: Worst To Finish First
A year ago, when Phil Mickelson won the Masters, he lost something almost as significant—the title “best player never to win a major championship.” Lefty thereby joined the relieved ranks of David Duval (2001), Mark O’Meara (1998), Davis Love III (1997), Tom Kite (1992), Greg Norman (1986) and Ben Crenshaw (1984) in shedding an unofficial […]
