Blind Shot

PHOTOGRAPH BY GORDON-HATTON

The More Golf Changes…

…the better St. Andrews looks, especially as it welcomes the 150th Open Championship.

This July brings the 150th edition of the “History of the Scottish Torture,” as Alistair Cooke— sort of an old-school, 18-hole Jonathan Franzen—once called it. Only the Royal & Ancient in St Andrews, he wrote, could celebrate the national game with a crucified saint on its coat of arms.

Whatever way you see it, Open No. 30 in the old cathedral and university town is timely. Let others worry about armored courtesy cars, and whether there’s trunk space for millions in unmarked dollars. At St Andrews, everyone knows who the real star is, and why golf has been played over the northern borders of this place for more than 600 uninterrupted years. Ask in serious locker rooms. The Old Course’s reputation is the natural consequence of where and who.

This “metropolis of golf”—1754 hype by the Society of St Andrews Golfers—has survived a royal order forbidding engagement in its practice and a contract granting 50 years of mining rights. It was almost lost to legalized rabbit farming in the late 18th and early 19th century. It will even survive the current uncivil golf war.

The place endures. It is about those who come to worship, not what anyone takes away. The myth? The myth is that nothing changes. The reality? The whole place is in constant evolution—and 2022 is no different.

This will be the biggest Open Championship of all time with nearly 300,000 general admission tickets available. Why are they here? The R&A have planned a parade of champion golfers and a four-hole exhibition over 1, 2, 17 and 18. It will feel confirmational, that the soul of something valuable rests here, regardless of the game’s ongoing adventures elsewhere.

James Cheape, who ended the rabbit wars by buying the under-siege links, would still recognize today’s roped-off Old Course. Misty-eyed commentators might claim Mary, Queen of Scots would recognize the Road Hole (she wouldn’t, honest). Others will focus on defense of the realm, noting that in 1990 when Sir Nick Faldo won, the course was much the same length (6,933 yards) as it was in 1955 when Peter Thomson captured the second of his five Open titles. The 2022 card is once again 7,279 yards—a gentle 5 percent nod to technology.

As the past is protected as much as the future, nothing seems dated at St Andrews. That is the R&A’s great trick. —JAMES CUSICK

THE SPAN OF CENTURIES:

Known for ages as the Golfers’ Bridge, the iconic structure traversing the sinuous Swilcan (aka Swilken) Burn connects the first and 18th fairways of the Old Course at St. Andrews—and links every golfer to the game’s history.

Denver

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