Both: Hey everyone!
Jen: It's Jen and Greg with an update on our travels.
Greg: This update is about the visit we made to St. Andrews. So a little golf heavy.
Jen: But St. Andrews is more than just golf. There's a cathedral. There's the university that's very famous, castle ruins, a lot of different stuff besides the golf course!
Greg: So our trip to St. Andrews began with a very short train ride. I mean, it's very close to where we were. And we went straight to the hotel. We stayed at the Old Course Hotel.
Jen: Yeah, it was a little bit of a splurge for us, but we decided if we're going to go to St. Andrews and see it, we kind of wanted to go all in for the whole experience. Our room was awesome.
Greg: Yeah, we had a great view from that room. I think it overlooked the iconic bridge, right?
Jen: Yeah, the Swilcan Bridge. If you watch the British Open, they always show the golfers walking over that bridge. And it was cool to be able to look out over the course, see the clubhouse, watch people play golf and kind of see it all.
Greg: It was a fantastic room.
Jen: Yes, it was indeed.
Greg: After we put our stuff in the room, we went to get lunch at the Jigger Inn.
Jen: So this is a little pub that, you know, people come in after their round, get a beer, get some food. They had signed golf hats from all the famous golfers that had played there and been there. So it was kind of neat to pick out who you actually knew and...
Greg: In any case, after the lunch, we went to the cathedral ruins and then walked back towards our hotel.
Jen: Yeah, basically the whole town is walkable. It was a beautiful spring day. Blue skies, perfect weather to explore these ruins. And we just kind of went in and there was so much to look at. So many cool pictures to be able to take.
Greg: So the cathedral ruins really were, I think, the coolest thing we did other than touring the Old Course.
Jen: Yeah, I would agree. We looked around there for a long time and then we kind of walked down a little bit and there was the castle ruins. We didn't go in there because you had to pay and you could kind of see them from the road. There wasn't much to them.
But it was really weird because this crazy fog rolled in. It became this like overcast day when the sky had just been bright blue. And then just like that, five minutes later, fog was gone. Weird…Scotland weather.
Greg: Yeah, yeah. So we continued walking from the castle. We walked past a portion of the university, which is fairly prestigious St. Andrews University, founded in 1413. Academic excellence, also some famous alumni.
Jen: Like Prince William and Princess Kate…
Greg: But past the university, eventually you passed by West Sands Beach.
Jen: West Sands Beach was the filming location for a scene in Chariots of Fire. You've probably seen the opening scene. They're all running down the beach. Slow dramatic music.
Greg: Yeah. After we walked by that, we ended up taking some pictures of the Swilcan Bridge because, you know, you walk right by it.
Jen: And nobody was there at that time. So we took that opportunity to get those shots.
Greg: Yeah, for sure. Next day is when we had a tour of the Old Course.
Jen: As much as the weather was beautiful on the Saturday that we walked around town, it was the complete and total opposite when we took the tour of the course. Pouring down rain the entire time.
Greg: Yes. And when we went to the tour, we asked the hotel if they had umbrellas they could let us borrow because we did not have genuine rain jackets at that point. We picked them up later.
Jen: Because of this day. (laughs)
Greg: Yes. They give us a couple of golf umbrellas. They're not umbrellas from the hotel.
Jen: Yours was from a hotel. It just wasn't this one. I had a dentist's office umbrella so you can imagine the quality. We're standing out on the golf course - part of the tour - and a gust of wind comes that I was not prepared for. And it snapped my umbrella in all the places. So we're down one umbrella.
Greg is trying to cover me with his umbrella. We're trying to keep up with the tour guide because we have these little speakers that you have to stay in a certain range with him. So it was kind of like a comedy of errors this tour. Still awesome though!
Greg: So our guide did a very good job of keeping things balanced. He tells you a decent bit about the history of the game of golf, as well as the history of the course. But also while you're going through the holes, he does share big moments in tournament and professional history that people remember from certain points on the course. And he includes a decent bit of information on what playing those holes would be like. If you're lucky enough to get a lottery tee time.
Jen: Yeah, because we learned that the Old Course, you have to enter a lottery system every day to be able to play. They let you know like two days before if you get a tee time, but just because you stay in the Old Course Hotel doesn't guarantee you that you'll be able to play. You basically enter a lottery and we actually had two people on the tour that were lucky enough to have spots the next day. So they kind of got a sneak peek of the course.
Greg: Yeah, and the guide actually shared the people who give these tours do not get special treatment. If he wants to play the Old Course, he has to enter the lottery like everybody else.
Jen: Yeah, I think he says he's actually only played it like once or twice.
Greg: Yeah, he said he preferred the Jubilee Course.
Jen: So St. Andrew's actually has like seven golf courses around that area. Some of them are older than others.
Greg: Yeah, we're not talking about something recent. So for an example, the Old Course, which is in theory from the mid 1500s or late 1500s, then there's the New Course, which was from 1890 something. Then there's the Jubilee Course, which is from, like, a couple of years later in honor of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. There's, like we said, seven courses and I think plans for an eighth now.
Jen: Yeah. And one thing we did learn about the Old Course, it's very rocky and the soil is not good.
Greg: It's sandy soil.
Jen: That's right. So there's a bush, the gorse bush. It's very thorny and the guide said, “If you hit your ball in there, you just leave it. Nobody wants to go in and chase their ball in that bush.” So…
Greg: Right. In any case, the specific holes that we toured, the first hole, 17th hole, which is known as The Road Hole.
Jen: And the reason it's called that is because the road runs right along it. And during these tournaments, the road is actually part of the course. So if you hit your ball off the grass and into the road, you have to play it from the road.
Greg: Yep. And then there's the 18th hole, which has the Royal and Ancient Golf Club building right there. And so it is the very famous shot during trophy presentations.
Jen: One of the other things we thought was pretty neat — in the morning of our tour, we woke up and noticed that people were walking on the golf course, their dogs were out running like it was a public park, almost. And come to find out on Sundays, the old course is closed to golfers and it's a public park where people can go. So even if you're in the area and can't get a tour, on Sundays, you can just go walk the course on your own.
Greg: So we learned during our time in Musselburgh and this trip that for a long time there was a rivalry between the two areas.
Jen: Yeah. So because our guide had mentioned, “St. Andrews was the home of golf”, and Greg said, “Well, we're staying in Musselburgh and they say they have the oldest golf course there.” The guide was very adamant and saying, “No, that's not true. This is where golf started.”
Greg: Yeah. So on one side, Musselburgh and the golf course there, which for a long time was considered the oldest golf course in the world. And the golf club associated was the Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers. Now, in the late 19th or early 20th century, they built a golf course very specific to their needs and desires in Gullane. It's called Muirfield and the British Open is sometimes hosted there. We talked about that in the last update, but they always had this tie to Musselburgh. Then you have St. Andrews and the Old Course and The Royal and Ancient Golf Club associated with that area.
And they each bring something to the game. Like the size of the holes in golf came from Musselburgh. They had a special tool they were using to make it quicker and easier to dig the hole or move the hole to a different spot. And it was four and a quarter inches size that it created the hole, which just stuck. And when the Royal Ancient Golf Club started becoming the golfing authority, they kept that as the official size of the hole for golf.
Jen: And the original 13 rules of golf, they were written by the Musselburgh course as well.
Greg: Yeah. And that's, for people who aren't aware of, things like how you have to play the ball where it is and you can't move things out of the way or pick up your ball, stuff like that. So at some point in the early 20th century, some documents were quote-unquote discovered that pointed to St. Andrews Old Course being the oldest course in the world. Up until that point, it was recognized by everyone that Musselburgh's course was the oldest course in the world. And it sparked a little bit of a debate because Musselburgh felt like St. Andrews was attempting to squeeze them out of the history of golf.
Today, the debate is largely symbolic. Still passionate as our guide demonstrated. Most people say that St. Andrews Old Course is the oldest, but they each recognize how each of them has played a significant role in the game of golf.
Jen: Yeah, it's all in good fun now, I think at this point.
Greg: Yeah. So that's pretty much our time in St. Andrews. We hope that you guys got caught up in the St. Andrews/Musselburgh rivalry as much as we did while we were there.
Jen: Team Musselburgh!! (laughs)
Greg: Yay!! And as we like to say…thanks for checking in!
Jen: And we'll see you at the next stop!
