The first time you played The Old Course..............

[Kalen Braley]

Its the worst piece of mess I've ever seen.

Sincerely

- Scott Hoch

[Chris DeNigris]

  Was it spiritual?

     Definitely, said a lot of prayers, especially on 1 and 18.


   What surprised you the most?

      1. That my t-shot on number 1 actually bounced off a hotel, back over the cars, safely onto the 18th fairway.
      2. That I didn't have a heart attack right there and then.
      3. That I somehow still made a 4.

   How was the weather?

      Sunny, breezy, mid-60s.

   Who did you play with?

      Three wonderful people from the UK

   Was it The Holy Grail?

      Absolutely, especially after the starter quizzed me with:

      What is your name?
      What is your quest?
      What is the average air speed of an un-laden swallow?

Chris

[Tim Gavrich]

It was delightful.  My dad and I played it last June at around 11 AM.  The weather was wonderful except for a hole and a half.

I wasn't as nervous as I thought I'd be on the first tee; made a decent swing, from what I recall.

What surprised me most was how relatively unchallenging it was from the tees I played.  We played from the 6200 yard yellow tees (the "Medal" tees played at about 6600, but I wasn't allowed to play from them), and I was able to fly almost all the trouble on most holes.  My father hit the best shot of the week on the Road Hole, a 4-iron to about 4 feet (he made the putt).  He shot 78 or 79 and I shot a relatively painless 72.  St. Andrews is a wonderful place, especially the Old Course.  I was a little bummed about having to play from the short tees, but all in all it was really, really cool.

[Kalen Braley]

     What is the average air speed of an un-laden swallow?[/color]

Chris

African or European....

[jkinney]

WAS IT SPIRITUAL ?
    Absolutely. It was instantly so.

WHAT SURPRISED YOU THE MOST ?
    The endless complexities of the design

[jkinney]

HOW  WAS THE WEATHER ?
    Partly cloudy with sleeveless vest temperature.

WHO DID YOU PLAY WITH ?
    One of golf's Maharajahs, and so we had entry into the R & A, which elevated the experience.

WAS IT THE HOLY GRAIL ?
    Without question, IMO. The Auld Course is endlessly fascinating, and the atmosphere of the Auld Grey Toon exudes the founding
    of the game. And luckily, I had my picture taken on the Swilcan Bridge with the R & A clubhouse in the background and then sank
    a seven fotter for par on 18 to the polite applause of those on the road above. Unforgetable.

[Bill_McBride]

HOW  WAS THE WEATHER ?
    Partly cloudy with sleeveless vest temperature.

WHO DID YOU PLAY WITH ?
    One of golf's Maharajahs, and so we had entry into the R & A, which elevated the experience.

WAS IT THE HOLY GRAIL ?
    Without question, IMO. The Auld Course is endlessly fascinating, and the atmosphere of the Auld Grey Toon exudes the founding
    of the game. And luckily, I had my picture taken on the Swilcan Bridge with the R & A clubhouse in the background and then sank
    a seven fotter for par on 18 to the polite applause of those on the road above. Unforgetable.

Yes, the Auld Grey Toon in the background is fantastic with its outline vague at times.  One of the most fun things was trying to figure out which church steeple my caddy was telling me was the line off the tee!

It was easier going out.  "Stay left of the gorse, Bill."   Gotcha!    Then a couple of times going out there is a white structure you aim at, sort of like the house on the hill far above the 8th tee at Pebble.

[Greg Krueger]

Was it spiritual? In a way, yes.

What surprised you the most? How slow the greens were. I was short most of the day.

How was the weather? Absolutely perfect, 65 degrees, 5-10mph. Words can't explain how perfect it was.

Who did you play with? 2 buddies from Atlanta, 1 from Asheville.

Was it the Holy Grail? Along with Royal Dornoch, yes.

[Philippe Binette]

Spiritual.... maybe not. Fantasy is more appropriate.

Surprised me the most?
I had walked the course 4 or 5 times before playing it... but didn't notice until playing that there wasn't any oxygen on the first 4 holes...

Weather?
Coo but sunny light wind, first weekend of April, super slick greens.

Playing with?
Kyle Franz and gave him his first lost on the Old Course, and An Australian member of the New Club

Holy Grail?
Every time you tee it up on this course, something special is going to happen...
I hit three of the best shots in my life there

[Jaeger Kovich]

Spiritual - not for me, I found the historical/museum aspects to be to slightly overwhelming

Surprising - how only now that I am back in the US have I really started to understand some of the holes... you will never figure it out the first time you are there

Weather - If I went back 100 times it would never be that nice again... pants and short sleeves 3 days in a row

Played with - Long time family friend who lives in London... got paired up with a hilarious local and a club pro from the US who was the locals guest

Holy grail - Still searching for it... I'm only 22, there is plenty more great rounds out there still to be played before I can say something like that. But I learned quite a bit about what the game is all about.

[Carl Johnson]

 Was it spiritual?  No.

 What surprised you the most?  Although I'd heard it was difficult to tell where you were going, I guess I was surprised by the actuality of it.  Fortunately, we had caddies.

 How was the weather?  Calm, clear, probably 68 degrees F.

 Who did you play with?  Business partners on a golf holiday to Scoltand.

 Was it The Holy Grail?  No, but I'm happy to have played it once.

P.S., I just wanted to see what some of the different color options looked like.

[Kirk Gill]

Anthony, I'll throw down another mom-related story - but I'm cheating, because I posted this a few years ago on this forum, and don't want to type it all again. This is from a thread about your "First Golf Trip Ever." Sorry for repeating myself !

My mother and I had planned to take a trip together for a long time, but ovarian cancer intervened, and surgeries, and the like. In the interim, I got married, and on my honeymoon had a chance to play Banff Springs. Played as a single with three Japanese tourists, who were very nice. The course was beautiful and challenging, but that trip, to me, wasn't a "golf trip." It was a honeymoon, and we camped everywhere we went. I might have been the only player at Banff that day who had slept in a tent the night before.

About three months after that, my mother and I finally had a chance to take that trip, to the UK and Ireland. She was weak, and we took it easy, driving from place to place, staying awhile, getting the feel for the places we went. She knew how much I wanted to play at St. Andrews. It was the one destination we knew we were going to get to on the trip. We stayed at a tiny B&B outside of town. Because I couldn't make an advance reservation as a single, I headed to the course early in the morning, a blustery, windy, rainy one. There were already two singles waiting in front of me. Group after group went out with no openings, we waited until there was a string of three-somes that allowed that the waiting, moribund singles to join up. I joined a group, and played very poorly with a truly wretched set of rental clubs.

And had the time of my life.

I returned to the B&B, exalted with the experience of having walked in the footsteps of Morris and Jones and Snead and Hogan and Nicklaus...........and as I pulled into the gravel lot my mom walked out of the front door - she'd waited there, resting up, and the first words out of her mouth was "Did you play it?" - and the fierce look of love on her face, hoping that I'd had a chance to realize a dream, is with me to this day. She'd had an investment in my experience that I hadn't appreciated, until that moment.......

I don't know if I'd call the experience of the course itself "spiritual," but it was special for a lot of reasons. I was walking where everyone who'd been much of anything in the known history of golf had tread, and I was thinking about it more than was probably good for my game. I played with a member of the Royal & Ancient and two of his friends from Glasgow. I remember on one hole the member (who partnered with me for a match against his friends) hit a straight drive to a fairway that was blind from the tee. One of his friends hit a drive that to my eye looked about the same. My partner immediately said that he wouldn't like it. The shot was in a fairway bunker, and my partner's ball was sitting 6 feet to the side of it. Nice. It wasn't the Holy Grail of golf for me, maybe because I KNEW that I could play it. All I had to do was get there. The holy grail is the place that won't let me in. PV, Merion,Cypress Point..........

[Reef Wilson]

Was it spiritual?  Yes, and I'm sure there were some goose bumps but I'm that kind of guy. At that time I was not so into the architecture, so it would be quite different for me now.

 What surprised you the most?  The flatness. I mean I knew it was flat, but this was something else than what I was expecting

 How was the weather?  High 60s, a liitle wind. I wore shorts....gasp!......cargo shorts.....GASP!  I had planned to where pants, but walking by earlier I saw a fellow tee off who was far less entitled to wear shorts than I and I made the call and glad I did!

 Who did you play with?  A couple of Norwegian guys. One of them was so nervous as we were getting ready to tee off. It was quite funny and in the end he had the best round.

 Was it The Holy Grail?  I need a few more trips around to properly soak it in

[Chris Kane]

Was it spiritual?
No, see below.

What surprised you the most?
How far left you can hit it.

How was the weather?
Biblical - a torrential downpour began when I was on the third tee, and didn't stop until I'd hit my tee shot on the Home Hole.  My waterproofs finally failed around the 13th hole - I was cold, wet and miserable.  Got undressed in the shower afterwards!

Despite this, I played pretty well!

Who did you play with?
A couple of mates from the university.

Was it The Holy Grail?[/b[
My second game (brilliant sunshine) was the Holy Grail!

[Ken Moum]

   Was it spiritual?

Not so much. I loved the place, but I had just played Cruden Bay, Nairn, Dornoch, Brora and Boat of Garten, Jubilee and New on previous days. I think the spiritual moment came a couple days earlier on the Sunday we arrived in St. Andrews and parked next to the 18 green. When we walked out onto the course for the first time, now, THAT was spiritual.

   What surprised you the most?

Not much of anything was surprise, except maybe the amount gorse-induced blindness on tees.

   How was the weather?

A brisk wind into us going out.

   Who did you play with?

With a friend from home, the Links Superintendent and TOC's Head Greenkeeper. We played on a locals-only tee time at 5:10 the evening before our pre-booked tee time.

   Was it The Holy Grail?

Sort of. I think nothing affected me as much as playing Brora.

   Anthony



   

[Matthew Mollica]

  Was it spiritual?

   What surprised you the most?

   How was the weather?

   Who did you play with?

   Was it The Holy Grail?  

1. Near spiritual. Extremely significant from a historical perspective. I felt connections with previous generations, and all the greats who had played there.

2. The width of the holes, and the size of the greens, as well as the integration between golf course, nearby buildings & streets and community. I too was struck at how a consistent fade could work so well around the course.

3. Teed off after 6pm it was a little windy, mid-June and wonderful. Walked up 18 in twilight, with the lights in the R&A Clubhouse glowing gently.

4. An ex-pat Australian and his son, who were now St. Andrews locals, and an Irish medical scientist on confernce nearby.

5. Not necessarily The Holy Grail but certainly something I was extremely pleased to have done, and something I feel everyone in golf should do.

Very few rounds have been as memorable. Ask these questions about other rounds and I couldn't answer with the same degree of accuracy.

MM

[Andrew Summerell]

   Was it spiritual?   No

   What surprised you the most?   The modest nature of the course, which I have found out on subsiquent rounds adds to its complexity.

   How was the weather?   Clear & reasonably calm

   Who did you play with?   Three really nice Scottish guys

   Was it The Holy Grail?   I don't believe in singular 'Holy Grails'.

   Anthony



   

[Mark_F]

1. Near spiritual. Extremely significant from a historical perspective. I felt connections with previous generations, and all the greats who had played there.

And being a podiatrist, you, more than anyone, would appreciate walking in the footsteps of past champions, Matt. 

[Ian Andrew]

Was it spiritual?
Very much so - I had stood on the first tee with tee times twice and was told I could not play. I had walked the course numerous times - and I wanted to play it so babdly at that point.

   What surprised you the most?
The variety of options – I knew they were there – I hadn’t realized how often I would use an alternative approach. I used the ground a lot more than I thought I would.

   How was the weather?
40 mile an hour winds – mid round driving rain so strong that it stung your exposed skin – and cold (this was April 1st – seriously it was…)

  Who did you play with?
Keith Evans - Rees Jones (one of my closest friends in the business)
Greg Muirhead – Rees Jones (we had a match)
Brian Ault

  Was it The Holy Grail?
Yes

[Gary Slatter]

Was it spiritual?     Sort of, we were surprised that we could play on 5 minutes notice so the rushing made it less spiritual. The 40 times that I have played since have been more spiritual. I found Dornoch quite spiritual.
What surprised you the most?   We walked up and asked when we could play, and were told "right now if the two ball will let you join them. Kaching, kaching, we were on the tee.  The shortness of many holes was also a surprise, as was the second green.I guess the final surprise is finding you don't have to take off your rainpants to whizz when the weather is like that.
How was the weather? 40 mph wind, temperature around 40 F, rain all 18 holes.   April 2005.
Who did you play with? My wife and two chaps from Liverpool who allowed us to join them.
Was it the holy Grail?   No, but it's growing on me as I play every Thursday. I did visit the Holy Grail a few times at Rosslyn Chapel and really enjoy returning there a few times per year.