From an experience and flow point of view, I have come to like the routing of the course quite a lot. I find it to be very natural, especially considering historical depictions of early golfers.
Think of it. You are at the edge of town and see this compelling links land. You start walking out towards it, suddenly meandering through wispy hillocks, colorful gorse and heather, and scrapes of open sand. You continue walking straight out until seeing the estuary, and by this point there is no choice but to get to the water's edge. Then you turn back and see the town. It is a great sight, but you are not ready to head back yet, for these dunes are too captivating. You middle about a bit more before deciding to head back, take one last look over the water, and turn back into town, watching the buildings slowly grow until they are right above you.
That is the feeling I get when walking it, and it is sort of what happened for me the first time there. I brought my clubs hoping to play somewhere, but I decided it was too late in the day. Here I was though in St Andrews for the first time, a dream come true, and I had to explore. I just started along the Eden path, not even knowing what it was or believing that the Scottish Right of Way I heard about was actually true. I kept thinking about turning around, but I kept walking, clubs on my shoulder. You could imagine I got all sorts of looks and questions. Here I was walking along hole twelve with my clubs heading towards the estuary. I was asked where I was going by a golfer, and he had a smile that basically just said, "you must be some sort of an idiot," which does make some sense now looking back at it. I just replied in my dazed mood, "wherever the path ends." Little did I realize the path ended at the first tee. Pretty cool.
I can imagine too that this is how the game started, at least at St Andrews. Shepherds, fisherman, whoever, would knock a ball or rock into scrapes (for money, of course) in a progression straight away. Eventually they came to an end (The Eden Estuary), and after not too long they figured they might as well play going back in too, since, after all, they were walking that way anyway. They went out, and came back. Oversimplified, but it makes sense to me. There are seemingly so many stories of the origins of the game here, and I was hoping to gain clarity from being here but the information and legends seem just as inconsistent. Anyone with either some solid evidence, or are there any outlandish new theories to throw about? (since those are always fun)