When I was a young boy living in West Yorkshire, aged between 10-16, which covered the mid to late 1970's, holidays were spent visiting St. Andrews. It was a LOT different back then!
We stayed in some spectacular self catering accommodations, one or two even overlooked the sacred turf of the Old Course.
Lasting memories of this era of St. Andrews are plenty, those that have been fortunate enough to walk around the sacred town, know that St. Andrews has a special aroma about it.
Its now about 1975, I was wandering around St. Andrews with my clubs on my shoulder, quite late at night, and a drunken looking man staggered towards me (this man became a life long friend!) He proclaimed ''hey laddie, do you know who I am??'' I thought to myself, uhm yes, a drunken funny sounding American/ Scottish guy, and before I could say anything he said ''I'm the famous Tip Anderson, caddie of Arnold Palmer'' well that grabbed my attention.
That night, Tip told me about his life, and drank something out of a brown bag, stories about when he was a member of the St. Andrews Golf Club, and some of his on great feats he had achieved himself as a golfer.... He wouldn't fly, and never left the UK, yet had somehow adopted an American twang in his accent!
Back then, I had a paper round, and saved and saved so I could play the the links.St. Andrews was so, so different. There were only 4 courses, the Dukes and Fairmont not even thought of yet.
The New and Jubilee shared what would be best described as a shed, with a changing room you couldn't swing a cat round!
The New is about the only course that has not really changed over the years.
The Jubilee back then was quite an enjoyable, short, open and quite easy links Course, however over time that changed!
The Eden also had a small clubhouse, it is the building just across from the Old Course Hotel Resort and Spa, with the Rolex Clock on it, the first hole would be down the driving range!!
I do miss the Old Jubilee and Eden courses!
To play these 3 courses didn't cost a lot, I just bought a weekly ticket, as the Old Course was/ is/ and will always remain a different creature!
I met many people over the years, standing by the first tee of the courses, asking if I could join, I never have enjoyed playing golf by myself, knowing my luck, I'd get a hole in one and no one was there to share my joy!
During my holidays, I used to always have enough money to play the Old, my first ever score was 100!
Other things I recall from these days was the ''free'' juice you got from the upstairs of the woolen mill!
Other confessions I can now bring myself to share are - at about 10 o'clock at night I made myself a wee golf course in St. Andrews as I played the 1st, 17th and 18th on the Old at a great rate of knots!! Please forgive me ''links management committee'' this was almost 35 years ago!
When I did venture up the town, it just seemed there was a drunken caddie on ever corner, friendly as anything wanting to tell you his story about how he caddied for somebody famous yesterday etc etc ;=)
Auchterlonies golf shop always fascinated me, I could spend hours watching the guys through the window make golf clubs, and dream of one day winning the famous ''Sunday Post putter''
Suffice to say, St. Andrews had me hooked, I just couldn't get enough of this place, great courses, nice people, free juice....
So I joined the RAF with the cunning plan to get to the local Air Base at Leuchars. Achieved that, not once, not twice, but three times in my 12 year career **SAVE RAF LEUCHARS** Shameless plug!
This was 1983, by now, forward thinking was developing itself in St. Andrews. I remember a mini outrage as they dared put a water feature on the Eden Course, and those that don't like change hadn't seen what was yet to come!!So achieving my goal of getting close to golfing mecca, I now had to find out how much this was going to set me back, surely it must cost a fortune to be a member of these courses??
Not at all, £52 a year!! Including the Old. The Links had a deal with MOD Staff where we could get a cheap links ticket! Doesn't get any better than that!
I joined the RAF Leuchars Golfing Society, we played all our games at St. Andrews, and Station games were played on the Old Course. I represented the station and the RAF, so I was quite fortunate there, but like all things, with good planning, you can achieve all sorts!
RAF Leuchars played games against many local clubs. Ladybank, Scotscraig, Lundin Links, Crail, St. Andrews Golf Club (my old mate Tip Andersons club) Cupar. Friendships formed for many years to come, I still have friends at these clubs to this day.
One RAF Leuchars club championship day, I had a hole in one of the 11th on the Old... You couldn't make it up, was even witnessed by a fellow member of the Society who now works on St. Andrews Golf Links!
Commissioned officers based at Leuchars got into the Royal and Ancient, so thank you Sqn Ldr Graeme Stagg & Wing Commander Jack Haines for getting me into this wonderful building!
Early years in the RAF were spent in a variety of places, the Balaka was the place to eat for me, I had a meal just after it opened in 1982!
Kates, Tudor Inn, Ma Balls, the Vic, Ogstens were some of my favourites, I always liked the Niblick bar, as it had an insane amount of whisky to try, we never did make it from one side to the other.
Over time, the caddies sobered up (on the whole!) and are now a professional outfit, who are very good at what they do.
The Links now have 7 magnificent Courses to cater for all standards of golf. The Castle Course is superb for its youth. The Balgove and Strathtyrum Courses are great additions.
Bye to part of the old Eden, and a superb driving range was created!
The New and Jubilee now have a superb club house, with a state of the art restaurant. Over by the Eden, the links also have another award winning food, and amazing facilities
The St Andrews Bay opened, and to be honest I wasn't too struck with it. However, since the Fairmont have taken over it, they have taken the bull by the horns and the Courses are superb.
And then we come to the Dukes Course, part of the Old Course Hotel, Resort and Spa.
More about the Dukes and Fairmont in later posts....
When I became self employed in 1995, and opened the Barbers Pole in South Street, St. Andrews ''free nip of whisky with every haircut'' I thought my golfing journey had come to an abrupt end!
I was involved with the St. Andrews Merchants Association for a few years, and pretty much got to know everyone in town when it came to anything to do with Business/ University/ Fife Council/ Scottish Enterprise and various other bodies, including the Links Management and the R&A, so that in itself was another journey into St. Andrews
A few years ago, things got a bit messy between the Student and the towns folk, it seemed to feel like a little like ''us'' against ''them'' the Barber's Pole was always a safe haven for the students, so we helped to create the ''Town and Gown'' a committee of prominent people, who could discuss all the problems, the local police inspector even attended meetings!
The problems were all ironed out over time, and everyone loved each other again.
That year I was guest speaker at the University of St. Andrews annual Debate, which was an interesting experience!
The motion was ''This House believes the Gown is more important than the Gown'' well I basically told them my theory was simple, and as follows... St. Andrews is a revolving clock, take my Barbers for example, in the colder months, its the large population of students that keep the girls there in a job. when they have finished up for term, the tourists roll into town, and when that seasons over, we have a couple of weeks to switch everything back round, and the students come back, therefore, I had to abstain, as I believed they were both vital parts of the town, one needs the other to make St. Andrews work.
And abstention won!
My journey did continue, I know all the great courses in the area, and when my daughters diabetes meant I had to watch her from home, and the Golf Tourism Company was born, now known as St. Andrews Golf Groups.
One of our finest achievements was arranging for over 300 of the Society of Liverpool Golf Captains to celebrate their centenary in 2008, which ended up with the Provost of Fife, Frances Melville sending me a lovely bottle of malt whisky to my door, and a bunch of flowers for my wife, to someone like me, that meant a lot.
I've seen all sorts over the years in St. Andrews, a town that has its moments, a town I saw refuse to give Jack Nichlaus freedom of the city ......
If you want to arrange things yourself, just ask, I'm more than happy to offer assistance, being helpful never cost anyone anything! I'm now a member of St. Andrews Golf Club and would be more than happy to show you around the great building.
St. Andrews can serve every budget, with good planning you don't have arrive and have that Old Course Guaranteed time.
If events is your thing, that's what we do, if you're a society of over 8 or more and want everything sorted for you with no hassle, give us a call
Our latest project is the facebook golf Open 2012 at St. Andrews which has attracted quite a lot of interest.
Stay tuned!
