R&A Golf Club V St. Andrews Golf Clubs

The 'Town Match' is an annual game played between the members of the R&A and those of the local golf clubs in St. Andrews. It is played over the Old, New & Jubilee courses here on the links in the Foursomes format, alternate shot, and is one of the great fun events of the year.

I finally got my name into the hat along with my golfing buddy of many years, Andy. I sponsored Andy into the St. Andrews Golf Club this year and we were picked out as a team to golf on the Jubilee Course at 11.44am Saturday. Our opponents, from the R&A, were named as Mr J Rigg & Mr D Fay and our team's combined handicaps are 23, so no one gets any shots in this match play foursomes game.

Andy arrives at my 'holiday home' just outside St. Andrews on Friday evening after a horrendous day at work so the decision to head to the Dunvegan Bar in St. Andrews, after a couple of glasses of wine, was a no brainer! Once some food was taken with a couple of pints of guinness I suggested that he may like to visit his golf club for the first time as a member...an eagerly accepted invitation. A bottle of red was enjoyed.


Thankfully we were able to have a long stay in our beds before 'brunch', visiting the driving range, then heading over to the 1st tee and introductions to our opponents. As it turned out our R&A guys are both extraordinary chaps...Mr Rigg is one of the top Doctors in Britain and a former Captain of Royal Birkdale, host of many an Open Championship. His playing partner, Mr David Fay, happened to be the former head honcho of the United States Golf Assocciation (USGA). Goodness, one never knows who you are going to stumble into when golfing on the links at St. Andrews!

The match was a ding-dong affair with the game going down to the 18th green when David Fay sank a 6 foot putt for victory. Defeat yes, but it was such a grand game of match play golf that we all walked off with good thoughts and friends made.
The 15th green, signature hole of the Jubilee Course

We were invited into the R&A Clubhouse for a drink after the match, which was readily accepted as is the form of this tournament, and then we invite them into our club....and on it goes for the rest of the afternoon and evening...!

Andy sent me a lovely message on Sunday which I shall quote verbatim:

John as you walked ahead from the 18th tee David Fay walked to me and put his arm round my shoulder. He then said that he'd had many fine days in golf but today was memorable. He meant it. And I agree, it was.

A good day on the Jubilee links of St. Andrews, albeit we got defeated. The company was excellent, the game was played in the proper spirit of golf and my three golfing partners enjoyed their first ever round over the testing Jubilee Course.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cruden Bay Golf Club

Image
To help entice you avid golfers out there to come over to Scotland for a golf tour this summer I will be posting some pictures of my favourite Scottish golf courses over the next few weeks.  It is going to be a super golf season here in Scotland with the Open Championship returning to Turnberry in July and the majority of our major golf courses having retained last years prices. Added to this the strength of the Dollar against the British Pound, it really has never been a better time for visiting golfers to tour in Scotland. Golf tours are approximately 20% cheaper than last year!  This is the unique Cruden Bay located just north of Aberdeen on the east coast of Scotland. An astonishing links golf course that one will find hard to prepare for in a golfing sense...in fact nothing can prepare you for Cruden Bay! A one off. The view from the clubhouse over the Starters Hut to the magnificent links. It is a truly splendid links golf course with a tremendous location 20 or so miles north of
Read more

Identifying My Golf Ball

Image
I have over the years seen, in competition golf and fun bounce games, that it is really important to have a clear unique identification on your golf ball. I played in a wee competition a few weeks ago and all three golfers had one red dot marked next to the Titliest brand name! What are the chances? Boyne's identifying mark. After a wee think that evening I decided to go for a four dot two colour combination. The reasoning was that no other golfer is going to be this anal to sit for an hour and put a mark like it on his golf balls. I may need to get a life?!?
Read more

The St. Andrews Town Match 2013

Image
St. Andrews held the 100th playing of the Town Match on Saturday 14th September. This historic event is played between the local & international members of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club against the two main local golf clubs in the town: St. Andrews Golf Club and the New Club. 1st tee Old Course at St. Andrews Scotland There were 171 foursomes matches played over the Old Course, New Course, Jubilee Course and 1/2 dozen or so were even were golfed on the Strathtyrum Course. This amounts to 684 golfers in what must rank as one of the largest one day golf competitions in the world. The R&A Team view the 8th Jubilee Course Our match was played on the Jubilee Course at 3.20pm in great conditions as can be seen by the few photographs taken while we waited to tee off on the Par 4 8th. My playing partner Mr. Thomson The Par 4 8th fairway, Jubilee Course Putting out on the Par 4 8th green, Jubilee Course The game was played in good spirits, as it should be,
Read more