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| The Old Course - St Andrews - Six Centuries of Golfing History
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The Holes - going out |
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1st - The " Burn " Hole
The view from the first tee is perhaps familiar to more golfers than any other. The fairway, including the adjoining 18th, is nearly 100 yards across and there are no bunkers or rough. There was a bunker once, called "Halket's", on the far left, but that disappeared long ago,  almost certainly because there were grazing rights on that part of the course, and in bad weather sheep would have huddled in and wrecked it! The only danger on the way to the 1st green is the famous "Swilken Burn", snaking in from the far right before swinging right, parallel with the fairway. Just short of the green it turns sharp left and, invisible from the tee, its 8ft breadth menaces every shot to the pin. Any slice can either go out of bounds or leave an appalling shot over water and out-of-bounds rough. Down the left is sensible; but although the hole is under 350 yards, that line is too long for many even when the wind is only slightly against.
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2nd - The " Dyke " Hole
The Swilken Burn and the out-of-bounds rough are directly behind the Championship tee, ruling out any extension of its length. The hole remains what was voted by the leading professionals a century ago as being "among the best two-shotters in Britain". The drive is blind over a daunting stretch of whin, and for the first 300 yards further whin on the right punishes a slice. For the professional golfer, a great threat is Cheape's bunker 280 yards up the left hand side, not far from the bend in the wall at the 17th where the out-of-bounds proper begins. The green has two levels separated by a wicked ridge, with bunkers close along the high left side, and several pot bunkers guarding the lower level on the right. The main Championship pin position is on the top level, and the ideal drive - a blind one - must be close to Cheape's bunker. The green with its two tiers separated by a hollow and a bank, can make 3 putts difficult to avoid.
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3rd - The "Cartgate" Hole
All is rough and bushes for the
first 80 yards at the end of which is a deep, steep-faced
bunker. Like many on the modem outward half it has never
been named. Most of the famous ones - Cheape's, Road,
Principal's Nose, Hill, Hell, Coffins and so on - date
back to before about 1835 when a single pin on a small
green was the target, both out and back. The present
outward half was a wilderness of rough, weeds and whin.
There is trouble at both sides at this hole. Go too far
left and the nearest bunker of the Principal's Nose group
is waiting. If you escape that, the Cartgate bunker eats
into the third green on its left, providing a very
testing shot. Go down the right and a line of three
little pot bunkers are in play, as, on this line are two
others up by the green. It is best to aim from the tee a
little to the right of the nameless bunker.
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4th - The "Ginger Beer" Hole
There is one definite hazard from
the tee, an undulating ridge dividing a plateau on the
left from a narrow fairway on the right, where two
bunkers await the sliced drive. The ridge is a killer,
providing bad lies and cramped stances. The drive down
the left goes unpunished, but the second is comparatively
blind with the Student's bunkers coming into play near
the green and another one, greenside. The straight driver
should go down the right fairway, earn a good site of the
pin, easily avoid two bunkers well right of the green and
the little disruptive hump guarding the green itself. It
is two-tiered, the lower half sloping more and more
gently from left to right, but beyond the little ridge
the slope becomes much more pronounced halfway along and
three putts are frequent.
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5th - The "Hole & Cross" Hole
Down the
right, the last of them 250 yards from the tee, lies a
group of seven bunkers, on the straight route to the hole
and catching many drives. The line is to the left; a hill
running out from the Elysian Fields is the aiming point.
A really good drive comes close to a march or boundary
stone. Ahead lies a long bank with a bunker at each end.
Most players cannot reach the top of that bank in two to
get a good view of the green, which slopes away at first,
guarded by a deep, wide gully in front. From further back
it is often safer to take one club more and be sure of
clearing the gully. The green which the fifth shares with
the thirteenth, beyond it, is the largest on the course.
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6th - The "Heathery" Hole
The drive from the sixth tee is
daunting, across deep gullies covered in whin, flanked by
the coffins on the left, and several bunkers down a line
of rough on the right. On most of that side, whin awaits
the wild slicer. The best line from the tee looks to be
down the right, avoiding a hump just before a hollow in
the green, sloping away; but straight over the guide post
is safer. When the pin is at the front, those who can
manufacture a running shot, landing just before the hump,
very often get the best result.
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7th - The "High" Hole (going out)
This hole is
dog-legged, with a daunting drive for the slicer since
there is whin on the right for two-thirds of its length,
until the eleventh fairway is reached. The best line is
to the right of the big hill in front. A longer but safer
shot to the green awaits those who go left on it. There
are no bunkers in the way until near the green, but the
wide and deep shell or chockle bunker has to be carried,
and if in doubt - play short. Only a few yards left of
shell is the strath bunker, and the combined threat of
these and of the bunker beyond shell on the right, makes
any blind shot from the lower reaches of the big hill a
worrying prospect. The seventh is the first of the 'loop'
holes, which extends to the twelfth.
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8th - The "Short" Hole
The ground from tee to the green
is decidedly broken, with little hollows, small whin
bushes in front and large ones along the left; really bad
tee-shots are generally punished severely. The eighth
hole produces quite a few bogeys, but is simple compared
with most others here. Just in front of the green, often
in direct line with the hole, is the almost inevitable
little hill with a small and fairly deep bunker in the
face. The contours around it promote the arrival of balls
in the sand. Another bunker well to the right presents
very little threat. The line is directly at the flag if
you are sure of reaching the green, but otherwise it is
safer to play on the highest church steeple.
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9th - The "End" Hole
Within 40 yards of the tee the
ground becomes bumpy and covered in rough, heather and
whin, beyond which lie the twin Kruger bunkers, requiring
a carry of less than 100 yards. Well left, and perhaps 60
yards further on, Mrs Kruger is set in a stretch of
heather which runs almost to the green. Banks of whin
await any badly pulled shots. The Kruger bunkers date
from the Boer War. The heather down the left at both the
ninth and the tenth can produce very tough recovery
shots. In sight down the ninth fairway are two small
'hip-bath' bunkers: Boase's and then the End Hole bunker.
Another little-used one is placed at the near left-hand
comer of the green. The line is either right or left of
the two fairway bunkers, and your choice will always
leave a featureless second to the green - the one such
shot on the course. Probably because there is nothing to
concentrate on, there are many fives here. Very delicate
pitch to the pin on a raised green which slopes away from
them. Getting the distance right is difficult even for a
professional, the further down the green the pin is.
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