The New Course. Tour with photo's

[Tony_Muldoon]

I think this is an important course and hardly discussed anywhere. I haven’t seen that many photo’s either.  Partly I guess because there’s not a lot of elevation change or standout photo op’s and so it’s hard to capture.  Hopefully these will give an idea but they were taken on an overcast day last August.

The scoresaver says the course was paid for by the R&A who “appointed Edinburgh engineer B Hall Blyth to oversee the preparations and then entrusted the layout of the New Course to Old Tom Morris.”  It opened in April 1895 and “is perhaps the most intact of al his  (OTM) major designs, with only a few extra bunkers and some new tees added to his original creation.”  I know Melvyn posted last year on who was responsible for what and it would be good to see that thread again.

The fairways have lots of 4-6’ undulations and some of the greens are on plateaus. It’s also sandwiched between The Old and The Jubilee so it does loose a little for not having it’s own sense of place. However I had a ball playing this course.  The wind howled throughout , L-R on the way out and the course is basically out to the Eden and back again with only 9, 13 and 15 offering major changes of direction.  The truism is if this course were anywhere else it would be a favourite. I felt it had variety and interest throughout and was a good honest links course that I could enjoy day after day.


Hole 1

Is a gentle 336 yards with an odd rough ridge running from 250 yards to just short of the green. The scoresaver said lay up, but off the yellows it was chocks away and I got a favourable bounce and started with a 3!  The greens tend to be largish but with some undulation.









Again not too taxing at 367 yards just avoid the bunkers either side of the tee.  However it has to be said at only 250 yards to clear them you can understand why they don’t hold pro comps on this course.




Next, the best hole so far, 511 yards snaking round to the left and featuring a double green shared with the 15th.   Lovely ‘rumpled eiderdown’ fairway. This green is wide but short and I ran off down the back.

[Tony_Muldoon]

Just to give you an idea of the  location, its running directly parallel with TOC at this stage. The holes themselves aren’t cramped but the course itself is – if that makes sense?

11 months before the Open and each Sunday morning they had a large team (20+?) surveying it.  Don’t they know a chap called Mackenzie has already done it? You can just pick out the little flags.

[Tony_Muldoon]

Fourth  369 yards with a more testing drive.  With less to aim at this felt more like TOC.  The hole then turns left and plays to a huge green with bunkers on the left. Cool hole.







Fifth -  this owes something ot the 8th on TOC although it plays upto 180 yards.  The green is 25 yards deep and twice as wide with a huge conical depression on the right hand side. The only time I’ve seen one similar to that was at Alwoodley.




This was early one Sunday morning and the locals were out with their trusty dogs collecting balls. He must have had 60 in his pockets already.



6.  445 yards sterner stuff and a great bunkerless hole, playing a little L-R.  This hole turns around and faces the town before we head back out to the Eden.

[Tony_Muldoon]

7. 356yards  and only 274 to the cross bunkers.








8 Can be extended to 504 but whites are at 481, Again cross bunkers, this time at 285 (whites).








9 225 yards with the wind now howling behind me.  I think I took my 3R and I’m not long but went through the green. The green is in a punchbowl and is is effectively blind from the tee. Ideally you bounce in from the left.  The second best par 3 at ST Andrews?





To be continued...

[Tony_Muldoon]

On a side note Melvyn is often at pains to point out that prior to 1900 courses weren’t just constructed as 36 stakes in a day and play soon after.  As the later path addition shows this hole clearly involved a large amount of digging through that dune ridge to get this proscenium effect.  Mackenzie copied this at Lahinch and Littlestone but that was some time later.  I believe at Littlestone for many years they played the hole blind over the ridge and decades later funds were found to clear the way through.

[Bill_McBride]

Nice tour, Tony, thanks.  I've played the New twice and really like it.  The holes out around the turn are really good when you play down off the ridge and head toward home.

A few thoughts on the holes you've posted so far:

#3 has the only double green.  I didn't pay any attention to the Strokesaver there and like an idiot hit my best iron of the day, about 10' from the red flag.  Unfortunately the white flag - the outbound flag - was 100' off to the left where I could hardly see it!

Those bunkers on #5 are deep and fierce.  Luckily there's plenty of room between them for a run up approach.  The scary thing then is that deep pit in the right rear of the green!   You're thinking of #3 at Alwoodley?

#6 has one of my favorite greens at St Andrews, first for its wonderful view of the skyline of the "Auld Grey Toon" behind and then for the great donut in the front center of the green that can make bogey a real achievement.

#8 is a very cool hole with those mounds flanking the entrance into the green.  The correct positioning of the second shot is key but it's not always easy to see where the pin is - unless you played the Old Course in the morning and paid attention on the 8th tee!  The mounds hiding both sides of the green remind me, now that I've played it, of the 2nd green at Littlestone.

[Marty Bonnar]

Tony,
thanks for reminding me of how much I like TNC. I haven't played it for four or five years, but always look forward to it. May even have been with Nuzzo the last time?
The Four/Five and Eight/Nine combos are particular favourites from the front nine. Four is recently much improved with a ton of gorse removal from the right side and I just adore that fifth green. I've had to putt out of the, what I'll term, 'mega-swale' once or twice and it's a SCREAM!
Maybe the back nine is even stronger than the front? I'll have to think about that for a bit......pass the Corbieres, Nance.
v best,
FBD.

[Adrian_Stiff]

I think this course is very over rated. Jubilee is better and Eden more fun IMO. I never played the New, walked a bit but I just dont get it. Its a Doak 4 for me when you strip away where it is. 8th/9th were best.

[Marty Bonnar]

I think this course is very over rated. I never played the New

Adrian,
talk about setting yourself up for a monstrous Muccification.
Have you learned NOTHING in all your time here...
cheers,
F.

[Melvyn Morrow]

Adrian

You have never played the New Course but you think this course is over rated. Seems a good way to judge the playability and enjoyment of a golf course. Clearly you know better than us mere mortals. Nevertheless if that is your serious comment then we should respect it, even if we do not necessary agree.

Melvyn

[Marty Bonnar]

EEK!
and now you've gone and gotten the family involved......
enjoy sleeping with the fishes.
condolences,
FBD.

[Melvyn Morrow]

Marty

Each to his own, it's a discussion group and closed minds are to be expected, not that I am accusing anyone of being either open or closed minded.

Melvyn

[Jeff Taylor]

They don't let you play it back as far as you would like. It end up looking too short to be challenging. However, docile weather makes any course look easy when walking it.
The 5th, 9th and 10th were as good as any holes I played on my trip to Scotland back in 2008. That covers such greats as TOC #11 and 17, Kngsbarn #3, Troon #'s 7 and 8, and any hole at Turnberry (although 16 was great fun).
Too bad it's not in the rota for next spring.

[John Mayhugh]

Tony,
Thanks SO much for posting this photo tour.  I've only played the New once and enjoyed it quite a lot.  I don't have any photos from the day and am really enjoying yours.

Really nice to see the 5th & 6th greens again.

[Jason Topp]

I played the course 5 times with my father in 1992.  The 9th remains one of my favorite holes anywhere.  You feel like you are at the end of the world, the wind is raw, the ball disappears . . . hopefully near the hole.

[Marty Bonnar]

Interestingly (well, for me anyway), the 9th on TNC plays PARALLEL to the strand line of the estuary, whilst the 7th/11th on TOC play perpendicularly to the water and there is therefore no comparable Hole on either Course.

I LIKE a hole which plays ALONG a beach, but I ALSO like one playing towards or away from same. Is this one of the fundamentals of the joys of Links golf?

FBD.

[Eric_Terhorst]

Tony,

Add my thanks for the pics.  I played the New once in 2006 during a whirlwind tour, by myself with a group of three Scottish villagers that I caught up to, and thoroughly enjoyed it.  

Your pics  bring back memories of playing the 8th, my highlight--playing downwind I hit it past the cross bunkers, had a 5-iron in and made 4  

The 9th has few betters anywhere.  The par threes on the back, the 13th with a severely sloped green, and the long, well-bunkered 17th are also gems.  

I didn't get to play TOC when I was there, but playing the New again would be my second priority on my next visit.

[Anthony Gray]

  The 7th is truly a favorite. The cross bunkers may take driver out of your hands. The green behind mounding on the left and right with classic spectacle bunkering positions makes for one of the best designed holes on the couse. Nice work Tony.

  Anthony

[Tony_Muldoon]

The back 9 mostly played towards town.



Starts with a stiff 464 yards with only a single fairway bunker.  Blind tee shot over a maker post and a sinuous fairway.  I was having a ball really striking it well and I allowed for the now very strong R-L wind aiming well outside the post, even so I saw the wind turn it 90 degrees off to the left. Reload and same thing. Miraculously I found them both even though one had cleared the dunes on the LHS of the fairway!








11th 368 yards and we’ve turned back towards the Eden again.
This time I somehow managed to keep the drive down the Left side which was not where I needed to be. Found a bunker but could only play back away from green. Miserable 7 on what looks like a nice mid length hole with a receptive green. Oh how easily I’m suckered!




12th 518 yards and straight back to town. Features a step down at approx 240 yards.  I can’t understand why these aren’t maintained as fairway to give a boost forward?

[Scott Warren]

Good pics, Tony.

Where would you bracket TNC? Which courses is it as good as?

Do you think its location helps or hinders its standing?

[Tony_Muldoon]

13  157 yards.  Again the green seems like a large oval but with enough internal movement to keep things interesting. 3 bunkers protect the front.




14  386 yards and another cool (almost) bunkerless hole There’s a short one way off to the right suggesting the hole once played much wider? . Finally lost a ball here.




15 394 yards with another great crumpled fairway.  5 bunkers are scattered to seemingly random effect but the wind brings them all into play sooner or later. You come into the double green almost end on.

[Brian Phillips]

Tony,

Thanks for the photos.  The New course is my favourite course in St. Andrews.  I am sure that more visitors would play the course if it was called the The Old Tom Morris course instead of The New course.  Many visitors think that it is exactly that a "new" course and do not play it.  It is a wonderfully strategic golf course.

[Ally Mcintosh]

I too am a big fan of The New Course... It beats the Jubilee hands down in my estimate...

True I would pick the Eden for a good old fashioned late evening last minute clubs on the back type round... but it's by no means a better course than The New

[Bill_McBride]

Tony, I thought that 15th hole end of the double green had the wildest contours on the golf course, very scary stuff!

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

Tony:

Great photo tour. I've been waiting a long time to see some pictures of TNC. What time of the year did you play it?

As MacKenzie said referring to TNC and the Eden, "which, if they were not overshadowed by the Old Course, would proably be considered the best in Britain." If it were located somewhere else in Scotland, I'm sure it would be regarded more highly, certainly not the "best in Britain", but more appreciated than it is as present.

Did you notice many similarities between it and the Old Course?
 
Dónal.