Caddie Golf Tours

Approach to 1st green Old Course St. Andrews.  The annual golf match between the St. Andrews Caddies and the staff from the Links Trust, who run the massive golf operation here in St. Andrews, continued last Thursday. The caddies still smarting from defeat last December 2013, their first setback in over 8 years, were out for revenge. Nick drives from 2nd tee Old Course St. Andrews.  Good weather conditions prevailed thankfully with temperature holding between 6-8'C for the majority of the round. Six matches are played and there is an individual Stableford competition with the obligatory Nearest the Pin and Longest Drive also included. Stuart, one of our opponents stuck in bunker on 5th...free drop!  The course was in fantastic shape considering the time of year and the amount of rounds that are golfed over it during a year. Obviously there are a few areas that the greenkeepers were working on as they progress with preparations for the 2015 Open Championsh...

St. Andrews Golf - March 2014 2 rounds - 1 night £190 per golfer 18th green and fairway on Torrance Course St. Andrews. A wonderful opportunity to golf two rounds at St. Andrews and stay overnight at the luxury Five Star Fairmont Hotel. Golf on the stunning St. Andrews Castle Course and the Torrance Course, designed by Sam Torrance and Gene Saracen, which was a 2010 Open Qualifier venue and has been home to the Scottish Seniors Open for the last five years. St. Andrews Castle Course After golf why not relax in the wonderful Spa facilities, lounge by the pool and Jacuzzi or step into the serene steam room in the St. Andrews Fairmont Hotel. Bliss. Please contact Caddie Golf Tours for more information and availability via caddiegolftours@gmail.com or leave a message...FORE!                  

There had been talk for a number of years about the suitability of the Old Course Caddie Pavilion and the number of caddies that use it day in, day out, whether it really was 'fit for purpose' now that we are into the second decade of the 21st Century. There will be 140-160 registered caddies working the St. Andrews golf courses during the height of the season and this wee building has had its' day. It was demolished at the end of the 'official' 2013 golf season, in November, and a temporary pavilion has been installed 100 yards down the right side of the 1st fairway. A little bit of the romance may have disappeared, but it is temporary. I have known this old building since the spring of 2002 when I first came, anxiously, strolling past the R&A Clubhouse and 1st tee of the Old Course to be accepted, hopefully, into the ranks of St Andrews' caddies. With a score or more guys hanging around the outside of the pavilion, and another 20 or...

The St. Andrews Ladies Putting Club have a regular contest on the Bruce Embankment adjacent to the Old Course. This is usually a 'Shotgun Start' in groups of three each armed with their trusty blade and a scorecard. Wonderful stuff and a joy to behold. Bruce Embankment Putting Green

Finally...my 2013 caddie season on the links of St. Andrews begins tomorrow 28th March at 10.10am with Klaus, from Germany, who I caddied with last July. He has kept in touch via a few emails and informed me in December that he and Marion, his wife, had secured their tee time on the Old Course. The stroll up 18th fairway of the Old Course It will obviously be good to be back out on the great links and as a bonus we will be staying for the weekend to open our holiday home (read caravan), prepare it for the season ahead, play some golf, meet some friends and enjoy life back in the Kingdom of Golf.

Old Course St. Andrews & 2010 Open Championship A test link to the St. Andrews Links Trust new web site and the all important Ballot Results page. I generally visit this page once a day now that March has comes around and then more during the height of the golf season, checking on tee times and spaces/slots for the following two days of play on the Old Course. Good to see that tee times on the Old Course are now beginning at 07.00am and the last is at 14.40pm. The golf day is finally stretching out. These tee times are for Friday 22nd & Saturday 23rd March. Click on the link above to be taken to the Ballot page on St. Andrews Links Trust web site.

The build up to the release of the MUST READ golf book of the year is only a couple of weeks away from my old (read really young & talented) friend and fellow Old Course Caddie Oliver Horovitz. This is the first review I have seen. Expect to see and read a few more. Oliver is going to be on CBS This Morning with Charlie Rose to talk about his book on Monday 18th March and I expect he may get on a few more shows...we do (not) expect fame to change him!?! I wrote a wee promotion about the book a month or so ago and it can be found on my Blog at the following link: http://caddiegolftours.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/american-caddie-in-st-andrews.html If you haven't pre-ordered your copy yet, you can do it right here, right now: http://amzn.to/WbvTVM.

John Boyne, Caddie. I began my caddie career at the St. Andrews Links by chance not by design. My wife had encouraged me to attend a four day course being held in St. Andrews by the then Caddie Master, Rick MacKenzie, who after it was finished invited me to join his caddie Team for the summer of 2002. I thought that one summer caddying on the Old Course was too good an opportunity to miss for an enthusiastic golfer like myself, so I accepted. I am still here. There is a lot to enjoy about working on the St. Andrews Links not least the friendships that have been made with my fellow caddies and golfers from across the world. These are ties that remain strong and true. It is also amazing to think that you have become a link to caddies and golfers that have gone before stretching back centuries.     A few golfers that stand out from the +1500 rounds I have caddied at St. Andrews were the courageous blind lady golfer who went round the Old Course in 124 sho...

This is the Visit Scotland video that will be shown in the cinema, a wee bit longer.

There has been some conjecture over the last couple of months about the positioning of the 17th tee on the Old Course at St. Andrews and in an official announcement today the rumours can now be confirmed...it is to be moved! Below is the news release from the R&A informing the golfing world of the change. NEWS RELEASE ISSUED BY THE R&A 16 October 2009, St Andrews, Scotland: The 17th hole of the Old Course will be lengthened ahead of the 150th Anniversary of The Open Championship at St Andrews. The ‘Road Hole’, which has remained the same length for more than 100 years, will increase in length by some 35 yards to 490 yards. A new Championship tee will be constructed on the practice range of St Andrews Links Trust. It has long been suggested that the 17th hole would benefit from additional length to restore the original challenge of the hole. In advance of the 1964 St Andrews Open, three-time Open Champion, Henry Cotton, recommended the alteration stating: “I would make a tee jus...

The Scottish golf season is beginning to slowly escape from, what seems to me, a rather long winter period which started in mid November last year. Thankfully when April springs into view the golf season will have truly arrived. The golf season on the links courses at St. Andrews generally starts on the 1st weekend of April with the now traditional event of playing the Old Course in 'reverse' or as they would have played it during the 17th/18th & 19th C enturies. The 17th green on the 'Reverse Old Course' what we now play as the first. The course is played in a clockwise direction with the 17th Road Hole green becoming the 1st.You then tee off from the side of the green to the 16th green which now acts as the 2nd hole, followed by the 17th tee to the 15th green which is now the third and on it goes......it is truly odd for the golfer because this is not how they have viewed the golf course on TV and certainly not how they would have pre-planned their route to the gr...