Crail +

[Thomas Dai]

Himalaya's!

Jim, you've got to find the time to play the Himalaya's putting course if your at St Andrews. If there are any non-golfers with you, get them playing it as well. It's a blast. Brilliant. Wonderful. Take your camera with you.

All the best.

[Jim Sherma]

Crail Balcomie is one of the best places on earth and I long for a chance to return.

Kingsbarnes is very very good. I played 36 there and while it is not an easy walk the golf is pretty awesome. Some of the shots are somewhat contrived but really cool at the same time.

Having played it a couple of times I love the New and think there is just so much good golf there. Being in town I really think it is a must play. The Eden has some cool stuff on it and the jubilee is ok.

I also believe that Leven gets too little love. It may not be a world beater but it is very good with many many good old school links shots being asked of you.

[Bill_McBride]

I have spent a lot of time at Crail and adore it.... Along with the Eden, it is my evening round first choice for the area...

Crail has some cracking holes (favourites being 2,4,8,9,11,13,16) and some interesting greens... It is full of fun.

16 is the best Spion Kop in the world, without a doubt!

[Tom Dunne]

I have spent a lot of time at Crail and adore it.... Along with the Eden, it is my evening round first choice for the area...

Crail has some cracking holes (favourites being 2,4,8,9,11,13,16) and some interesting greens... It is full of fun.

16 is the best Spion Kop in the world, without a doubt!

No, the best Spion Kop in the world is at Craigie Hill in Perth (Scotland), but that course is fairly far off most traveling golfers' radar. Apologies for the external link, but a good photo of that hole can be found here:

http://www.out-and-back.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Spion_Kop1.pdf

[Phil McDade]

Tom:

That is one terrific article -- thanks for posting!

Flossmoor, on Chicago's south side suburbs, has a very good Spion Kop (11th).

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,41166.0.html

[Bill_McBride]

I have spent a lot of time at Crail and adore it.... Along with the Eden, it is my evening round first choice for the area...

Crail has some cracking holes (favourites being 2,4,8,9,11,13,16) and some interesting greens... It is full of fun.

16 is the best Spion Kop in the world, without a doubt!

No, the best Spion Kop in the world is at Craigie Hill in Perth (Scotland), but that course is fairly far off most traveling golfers' radar. Apologies for the external link, but a good photo of that hole can be found here:

http://www.out-and-back.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Spion_Kop1.pdf

Just checking to see if you were paying attention!

[Gary Slatter]

Unless you've already spent a lot of time in St Andrews don't overlook, The New, The Eden and The Himalayas.  Three memeborable courses for £100 and more time in the town.  I belive the Jubilee is worth seeing once too.

Tony's right, stay in town and play NEW and EDEN.  2 hour drive can get you just about anywhere in Scotland (altho it might take two hours to find a parking spot in Edinburgh).   CRAIL, ELIE and LUNDIN are also great choices, and you can't beat the DEVLIN (KITTOCKS) and THE DUKES when you get tired and need a buggie! 

[David Harshbarger]

I have spent a lot of time at Crail and adore it.... Along with the Eden, it is my evening round first choice for the area...

Crail has some cracking holes (favourites being 2,4,8,9,11,13,16) and some interesting greens... It is full of fun.

16 is the best Spion Kop in the world, without a doubt!

No, the best Spion Kop in the world is at Craigie Hill in Perth (Scotland), but that course is fairly far off most traveling golfers' radar. Apologies for the external link, but a good photo of that hole can be found here:

http://www.out-and-back.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Spion_Kop1.pdf

Tom, that is a great article. Wonderful detail on the history and reflections of the history on many courses.

Flossmoor's Spion Kop?  For Chicagoland I guess that counts...maybe?

[Tom Dunne]

Bill McBride,

It's pretty much a Pavlovian response at this point, isn't it?  

Phil McDade,

How cool is that? A rare American Kop. There's some good stuff on Tweedie deep within the back pages of GCA. Like most Kops, Flossmoor's was likely built and then named after the event as a kind of commemoration.

All,

(Sorry for taking this thread down another track)

[Ulrich Mayring]

I never got onto the Old Course by walking up to the starter during mid-day or even in the afternoon. And that despite there being two- and three-balls going out. I guess the starter either didn't care for me personally or felt that it should be hard and I wasn't making enough of an effort.

And sometimes weird rules are in place that they won't tell you about. I can book tee times online from my hotel room here at Le Touquet, but cannot book the same times by going down the steps to the hotel reception. They'll say "everything's booked except those awkward times" with a straight face. Maybe the starter at TOC has his own set of rules as well.

Ulrich

[Jim Tang]

All -

I am happy to report that I did get on TOC as a single by walking on.  I arrived on the grounds at exactly 3:32 AM.  I was SIXTH in line!!!!!  The guy who was first got there at midnight!  The second guy arrived at 2:00 AM.  Madness.  But, worth it.

Made it out w/ the 7:30 group.  Oddly, they had run out of caddies by that time.  There were perhaps 10 caddies that went out ahead of my group.

As for the course?

Magic.

[Mark Chaplin]

If you play Crail order your champagne in advance, they didn't want to serve us a couple of bottles at 8am, we only got one as a compromise, apparently they were concerned about our 8.30 tee time.......amateurs. 

As an aside Royal Cromer didn't have champagne at all, we nearly wrote to the palace questioning their Royal status!