ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — There are those who believe the Old Course at St. Andrews has been rendered obsolete in the men’s game. It is a choir that seems to grow louder each time the Open Championship returns to the home of golf.
In 2005, Tiger Woods commented that it had become “pretty easy” for big hitters to target the shorter par 4s by driving to the fringe of the green. Five years later, after Rory McIlroy shot an opening round 63 to tie the course record, Tom Watson declared that the “old lady had no clothes on today.”
Stripped of its defences in benign conditions, Jordan Spieth suggested two years ago that it had become a glorified wedge competition. Cameron Smith did little to quell the noise by that week setting a new lowest aggregate course record with a score of 20-under-par to claim the Claret Jug.
The Old Course, albeit as up-and-back as it gets and little more than 7,000 yards in total, can still bite back. McIlroy’s second-round 80 in 2010 was a reminder of the havoc it can wreak when the North Sea starts to open its lungs, while in 2015 conditions were so treacherous that play was suspended on two separate days and completed on Monday instead.
The Women’s Open visits St. Andrews this week for only the third time — the first since 2013 — but with the women not carrying it as far off the tee, can we expect the Old Course and its myriad obstacles to serve a reminder of how testing it can be?
Distance complaints are not unique to St. Andrews, which stands only 350 yards longer than it did nearly a century ago. The famous “Road Hole” 17th at St. Andrews was extended by 40 yards ahead of the 2010 Open in a bid to prevent to shorter irons being used to avoid hazards, but seven of the par-4s do not measure 400 yards.
The distance off the tee for the men and women is substantial — the No. 25 man on the PGA Tour averages 308.8 yards with the driver as compared to 267.3 for the 25th-ranked LPGA pro — and it led to concerns that the unforgiving bunkers that came to define the home of golf no longer posed a threat for the former.
“Outside of my own house, it is my favourite place in the world.”
High praise from our last winner at St Andrews, Stacy Lewis. pic.twitter.com/Gq3RFZ2jo3
— AIG Women’s Open (@AIGWomensOpen) August 20, 2024
Aberdeen-born Gemma Dryburgh is one of only two Scots to be playing at home, alongside 2009 champion Catriona Matthew. Winds of between 20 and 25mph are forecast for Thursday, which makes Dryburgh confident a lower ball flight can be an advantageous, and that the course will play more like it how it was intended to be.
“The men can obviously carry a lot of that trouble. Not so much us, but I think it will play a lot better,” Dryburgh said on Tuesday.
“The other day we played 16 downwind, and I could actually carry those bunkers. Today it was in off the right so it was a lot of bailing out left into that rough. They are definitely more in play for us, and I think even 14 we were today having to go left onto the fourth fairway to avoid Hell’s Bunker.”
England’s Charley Hull, who is aiming to win her first major after two runners-up finishes last year (including the Open at Walton Heath), played the Old Course in her first year as a pro in 2013, aged 17.
She is known for her aggressive play but she has already learned lessons from her warm-up event at the Scottish Open held two hours away at Dundonald Links, where she finished fifth, seven shots back from Lauren Coughlin.
“A couple of weeks ago my coach got me working on doing a lot of three-quarter swings because my golf swing got a little bit too long,” Hull said.
“But now I understand why because he’s introduced me to getting a low ball flight for these couple of weeks coming up for the links.
“Last week in the final round the wind died a little bit and my caddie said, ‘Just hit a normal 7-iron’. I was thinking to myself, ‘How do I hit a normal 7-iron?’ because I’ve been used to punching low all week with the ball set back in my stance.
“I do find St. Andrews a harder links for me, not necessarily because it’s super tough but because you can’t really (see) the lines in the fairways. It just looks very open so it’s quite hard to pick a point in the distance.
“When I played here in May, the wind was actually the opposite direction than yesterday. Last time, holes like the 10th and 12th I could get on, but yesterday it was a 4-iron short of the bunkers and then I hit it onto the green so it was a lot different.
“Hopefully it’s windy this week. It’s a bit more of a challenge. I really enjoyed that, the grind out there.”
Miyu Yamashita poses with her caddie at Swilcan Bridge. (Luke Walker / Getty Images)
The men’s Open Championship has been held here nine times but for most of the 155-strong field this is their first experience of playing at St. Andrews. Is it now time that it is included in the rotation more often?
“Yeah, a hundred per cent,” Hull said. “I think it would be really cool if it was here every five years or so.”
For now, the scarcity of visits to St. Andrews makes it a bucket list type weekend.
Stacey Lewis, who won here in 2013, played 11 rounds in seven days last time and hired a local caddie Fraser Riddler such was her excitement. It is why the Japanese media pack were here on Monday following the Iwai twins and the reason that teeing off over the hotel on the 17th takes several minutes as they capture the moment.
Last year’s winner Lilia Vu played the course for the first time Monday alongside world No. 1 Nelly Korda, who won the Chevron Championship to start this major season. They had to adjust to the double greens and keep an eye out for the blue and white flags denoting which belonged the front and back nine, but they too managed to fit in a photoshoot at Swilcan Bridge, situated on the world’s widest fairway (129 yards) shared by the first and 18th holes.
The Old Course holds a special allure, which is why 49-year-old Karrie Webb — who has more wins on the LPGA Tour than any other active player (49) — has come back to play after thinking she had blown her one chance when she missed the cut 11 years ago.
“I think what I love about it takes me out of my technical mind and gets me being more creative and hitting shots that you don’t normally hit,” says Webb.
“Here it’s all feel and visualising different shots. It’s knowing that you can hit it in the rough. Aiming at the rough on purpose as you miss off the tee because that gives you the best angle into the greens.
“I’ve not figured the golf course out. So I wouldn’t say it’s a course that I’m in love with because I could play it a hundred times and still not think I have the keys to how to get around here really well.”
(Top photo of Charley Hull: Ross Parker / R&A via Getty Images)
