Tales from the Old Course, St. Andrews






There are so many interesting, astonishing and curious facts related to the golf links of St. Andrews that one has great difficulty in believing them to be true. I suspended my belief long ago having witnessed some incredible incidents first hand through caddying upon the Old Course.

The stories/articles that I will be posting under the title Tales from the Old Course have either been viewed by myself and fellow caddies or have been well documented in the annals of golf at St. Andrews. I hope you all enjoy reading them.


The Burn

A couple of years ago I invited couple of friends to play their first game over the Old Course. We were fortunate and got a picture postcard day, light wind blue skies and a warm sun. I was really pleased to see that they both held their nerves on the first tee and hit super drives down the fairway. Well done indeed but it is the second shot to the first green that poses the difficulty with the infamous Swilcan Burn (stream) running directly in front of the green, waiting expectantly for the splash of golf balls.

The first golfer (name withheld for fear of embarrasment) caught the ball heavy, taking a huge divot from the fairway and advancing the ball about 80 yards, still 60 yards short of the green. Golfer number two fared slightly better insomuch as he flew the ball over the Swilcan Burn comfortably by unintentionally playing his 9 iron similar to an exocet like 3 iron. The golf ball never got above waist height and came to rest in the rough some 30 yards past the intended target of the green.

Time for golfer number one to play his approach shot to the green...only 65 yards to get over the Swilcan Burn. I must say he did not look entirely comfortable when he took his stance and the swing was not as smooth as he would have wanted so when the club made contact with the golf ball it did not have the gentle arc of a delightful chip onto the green. No, to his dismay, this ball stayed at ankle height flying with extreme force into the stream, from whereupon it reappeared having struck the opposite retaining wall of the burn and rebounding back onto the fairway much to his relief. This was very short lived as increduously the ball flew past our feet and dropped into the burn that curves around to the right side of the fairway. Thankfully I had already played my golf shot onto the green as I was now creased with laughter and would certainly have found it nigh impossible to play anything other than a putt.

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