Just for fun, I went to look up Bobby Jones' speech from the award ceremony at St. Andrews. Here's a snippet:
"I appreciate the fact that my good friend, the Provost, has glossed over my first encounter with the Old Course, but I would like you to know that I did not say a lot of things that were put out that I said. But I could not play the course, and I did not think anyone else could. I ask you to remember, of course, that at the time I had attained the ripe old age of 19 years, and I did not know much about golf.
Actually, that first time, we got along pretty good, the Old Course and me, for two rounds. I scored 151 - of course, there was no wind. My boys here this week will admit that ain't bad. But I started off in the third round and the wind was blowing right in my face. That day it was really blowing! I reached the turn in 43, and when I was playing the 7th, 8th and 9th, I thought, 'well, that's fine, I'll be blowing home with the wind.' Well, as I stood on the tenth tee it turned right round and it blew home all the way against me. I got a six at the tenth, and then, at the 11th, I put my shot into Hill Bunker, not Strath, as they said. They also say that when I got out of that bunker I hit my ball into the Eden. That's not so, for I never did get the ball out of Hill Bunker.
I came back to the Old Course in 1926 to practice for the Walker Cup, but before that I had a lot of thinking and talking to a lot of transplanted Scots who knew St Andrews. I set about studying it and I pretty soon found out that local knowledge is a real important thing if you want to play that golf course. You have to study it, and the more you study the more you learn; the more you learn the more you study it. I have this to say of the Old Course, that after my chastisement she seemed to be satisfied for she never let me lose another contest. When I say that, I mean what she did to the other fellow..."
Peter
PS - good questions to ask, Rich - thanks.