Come on Guys there is one hell of a difference, Mike you mentioned it Heritage to the golfing public, Well we, Scotland’s public and golfers are happy to share our history, not just something that only goes back to the 1776 (Christ, my family have been playing golf at St Andrews well before that date). The history of our game is older than many Nations in the world today.
The TOC & St Andrews as the Home of Golf offers more than just playing golf. You can walk in the footsteps of the real greats, not just the modern players (who worship at the yardage/distance alters). The First Tee or the 18th Fairway on TOC alone makes the golfer tingle and dream the impossible dream of being The Open Champion.
The Course alone has history and that’s why you want to play it, yet with all of our visitors you don’t tend to see us complaining, saying this is ours so what’s wrong with your 15,000 courses, we welcome you with open arms. Even though the number of visitors at times interferes with our ability to play a round when we want.
We are not the ones forcing you to play any of our courses or even the Castle Course, which you would never find me on that abomination, but many seem happy to pay the price for Golf’s equivalent of Disneyland (totally unreal and artificial).
The history, the location, the atmosphere combined with the balanced natural of the surrounding landscape allows Nature to work in total harmony with the Golfer. This is not just found at St Andrews but at many smaller out of the ways towns and villages though out our little country. Costs to play these courses are unbelievable cheap but of course you will probably have to walk and distance/yardage details are more or less non existent. But then you have to first resolve why you are playing, for fun or to win (either against yourself or others).
Melvyn
PS Had you answered ‘fun’ then my friend you have passed through those Pearly Gates and have seen the ‘Spirit of the Golf’.
PPS Sean, Sorry, I for one do not share you opinion of the Links Trust. They have a difficult job to done, however I have no problem with moaning at the R&A because they DO have competent people there, but they seem to be overlooked by those who believe the only true policy is sticking their heads in the sand when encountering a problem.