Old Course at St Andrews - History

History

The Old Course at St. Andrews is considered by many to be the “home of golf” because the sport was first played on the Links at St. Andrews in the early 1400s . Members played on what would become the Old Course, but because it was the only course St. Andrews had, it wasn't known as the Old Course yet. Golf was becoming increasingly popular in Scotland around that time period until in 1457, when James II of Scotland banned golf because he felt that young men were playing too much golf and not practicing their archery enough . The ban was held by the following kings of Scotland until in 1502 when King James IV of Scotland became a golfer himself and decided to remove the ban on golf. In 1552, Archbishop John Hamilton gave the town people of St. Andrews the right to play on the links. St. Andrews Links had a scare when they went bankrupt in 1797. The Town Council of St. Andrews decided to allow rabbit farming on the golf course to challenge golf for popularity. Twenty years of legal battling between the golfers and rabbit farmers ended in 1821 when a local landowner and golfer named James Cheape of Strathtyrum bought the land and is credited with saving the links for golf . In 1754, 22 noblemen, professors, and landowners founded the Society of St. Andrews Golfers. This society would eventually become the precursor to the Royal and Ancient which is the governing body for golf everywhere outside of the United States and Mexico. The course evolved without the help of any one architect for many years. However, the more significant people to its design were Daw Anderson in the 1850s and Old Tom Morris (1865–1903) who designed the 1st and 18th holes. Originally, it was played over the same set of fairways out and back to the same holes. As interest in the game increased, groups of golfers would often be playing the same hole, but going in different directions.

The Old Course was pivotal to the development of how the game is played today. For instance, in 1764, the Old Course used to have 22 holes. The members would play the same hole going out and in with the exception of the 11th and 22nd holes. The members decided that the first two and last two holes on the course were too short and should be combined into two total holes. St. Andrews then had 18 holes and that was how the standard of 18 holes was created. Around 1863, Old Tom Morris had the 1st green separated from the 17th green, producing the current 18-hole layout with seven double greens. The Old Course is synonymous with the The Open Championship, one of the oldest majors in golf. The Old Course has hosted this major 28 times since 1873, with the most recent one being in 2010. The 28 Open Championships that the Old Course has hosted is more than any other course, and still to this day The Open Championship is played there every five years, which is more than any course.

There's an interesting relationship between one of the most famous golfers of all time and the founder of Augusta National, Bobby Jones. The first time Bobby Jones played St. Andrews in the 1921 Open Championship, he infamously hit his ball into a bunker on the 11th hole during the third round. After he took four swings at the ball and still could not get out, he walked off the course. Six years later when the Open Championship returned to St Andrews, Jones also returned. Not only did he win, but he also became the first amateur to win back-to-back Open Championships. He won wire-to-wire, shooting a 285 which was the lowest score at either a U.S. Open or Open Championship at the time. He ended up winning the tournament by a decisive six strokes. In 1930, Bobby Jones returned to St Andrews seeking to win the British Amateur. He did win by a score of 7 and 6 over Roger Wethered, and proceeded to win all other three majors, making him the only man in the history of the sport to win the Grand Slam. For the rest of his life, Bobby Jones would go on to fall in love with the Old Course. Later in his life, he was quoted saying "If I had to select one course upon which to play the match of my life, I should have selected the Old Course." In 1958 the town of St. Andrews gave Bobby Jones the key to the city, becoming only the second American to receive the honor after Benjamin Franklin in 1759. After he received the key, he was quoted saying "I could take out of my life everything but my experiences here in St. Andrews and I would still have had a rich and full life," which is a testament to the pedigree of the Old Course.