St. Andrews-Whitney Cockrell

On Saturday, I took the train to St. Andrew’s, home of the famous golf course and the world’s oldest university. The town’s people were busy making preparations for the upcoming graduation from University and the Open.
Golf has been played and refined at St. Andrew’s for over 600 years. The course is open to the public, but visitors are only allowed to tour the course on Sundays without playing golf. People began golfing at St. Andrew’s as early as 14oo AD and St. Andrew’s is often referred to as the home of golf. In fact, in the early 1500’s, King James the II, banned young men from playing golf for a brief time, because it was distracting them from archery practice.
Originally designed with 22 holes, (11 out, 11 in), golfers finally decided to refine the course. They combined the first four holes, and the last four, making them into two long shots. This made the game a bit more challenging and shortened the playing time. 18 holes, continues to be the standard round of golf to this day.
In 1754 the Royal and Ancient Golf Club was founded and was comprised of 22 members, all of whom were either royal, or nobleman and landowners. This society is still in existence today, and governs all the rules of golf worldwide, except for the USA.
Sadly, I was in town on a Saturday, so I was unable to tour the golf course myself, but I did see the many preparations being made for the upcoming championship. I was told that the town would make 124 million pounds during the four day tournament, just from the television rights alone.
Tiger Woods, was among one of the many famous golfers expected to play in the open this year. The town is hoping that Jack Nichols will be coming. They love Jack Nichols because he is loyal and so kind. They told us that during Nichols first open at St. Andrew’s, he wasn’t allowed to stay at the country club with the other golfers because he wasn’t as well known, and no one expected him to win. So Nichols went in to town looking for a place to stay, but everything was full. Finally, he walked a few miles out of town and found a small bed and breakfast. He won the Open that year, and to this day, whenever he is in St. Andrew’s he will only stay at that small bed and breakfast. This has endeared him to the people of St. Andrew’s.
The people of St. Andrew’s were charming and engaging. The town was quite nice, and easy to navigate. I stopped by the Abbey, where my son was delighted to play soccer (football) with some of the local children for awhile in the courtyard.
St. Andrew’s was a lovely place. It sits along the coast and it was a beautiful, scenic train ride. If you are an avid golfer, you should come and play a round at St. Andrew’s at least once before you die. It is an exquisite course, in a lovely town. It does not disappoint.
So grab a jacket, your clubs, and umbrella and stay a bit in St. Andrew’s.