Old Course

Well, I did it! I finally made it over to the St. Andrews Links yesterday after class and spent an hour or two wandering the courses and looking around. Unfortunately, this leaves me with a confession to make-- I have absolutely no idea what courses I was walking on or how they progress. I couldn't for the life of me tell you if I was on the Old Course, the New Course or one of the many other courses they've put in at St. Andrews. Actually, that's not completely true. I can tell you that at one point I walked past the start of the New Course, since that's the only sign I saw the whole time. Other than that, I couldn't give directions to save my life. I usually didn't even know what direction people were teeing from. Maybe I should go back later with a map or something...

Regardless, it was a really pleasant walk. The course (whichever one I was on, I think it was more than one) is very well cared for and looks like it would be great to play on. Except for the wind. I'm sure that quite a few people have hit shots on that course that would have been perfect only to have a sudden gust come up and mess it up. There were quite a few people out yesterday, even though it's not exactly golf season. They're lucky that St. Andrews has what the locals call the "St. Andrews Bubble", where there is very little precipitation year round. From town, I can see hills covered in snow or rainstorms, but it all misses here due to some unique weather patterns. So even though summer is the more popular time for golfers, they can actually come year round and still expect to be able to play.

Golf tourism does a lot for St. Andrews, although I think it also affects some of the people that live here kind of negatively. I've met a few people who seem to have come here hoping that practicing on the Old Course at the home of golf would help them be better players and eventually make a living at it. It seems almost like they are looking for the history of the place to somehow infect them and make them famous. Unfortunately, this isn't really realistic and I think a lot of them end up disappointed, since St. Andrews doesn't offer too many other opportunities. It would be interesting to see what it's like here in the summer, when people are here for shorter periods of time to visit, rather than to make their future here.