Some casual observers of the game think the Open returns to St. Andrews for historical reasons as opposed to the fact that it is far and away the best course on the Open Rota. The Old Course lives off its name and past events, they say.
In turn, we here boo and hiss such thoughts so here during Open week, I thought it might be fun to highlight some of the reasons that make the Old Course so good at identifying the best. And how better to do that than go and punch the biggest bully in the gut (by that I mean Pine Valley, which has the best set of holes from top to bottom in golf).
Hence, what, if any, playing strengths does the Old Course have over Pine Valley? And is it possibly more mentally draining/taxing to play than Pine Valley?
Unusual for me, I am not so much talking about the merits of each individual hole and but rather some of the unique ways that The Old Course gets into the player's head over its eighteen holes. I'll start off with a brief list of ten:
1. Both courses offer width but at several key moments (namely, on the fourteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth tee shots), The Old Course cuts off half the world from you with out of bounds now ominously tight down the right. You have become accustomed to gobs of width the entire round and now, all of a sudden, the going gets quite a bit tighter - and right toward the end of the round when the pressure is likely highest. Some architects of the Golden Age thought OB was a must for a course to be great because of how it preyed on the mind. Conversely, there is none at Pine Valley, whose fairways start and stay wide to the very end, thus allowing good players to a) establish and b) stay in a rhythm.
2. Infuriating ways to make an easy bogey and a hard par. Stick the hole behind the Short Hole bunker on the Old Course and no one can get close downwind though the hole appears simple as simple can be. Many shots at the eighth end up 50-60 feet away, setting the golfer up for a slow motion bogey. At Pine Valley, there are no gimme bogeys - everything looks tough and you know for a fact you are always within an inch of losing your dignity with one loosely played shot.
3. The area one to forty yards in front of the greens - this is a strength of The Old Course and Pine Valley's only design weakness. Apart from the 1st, 4th, 13th and 16th holes (i.e. less than 25% of the course), Pine Valley is about aerial approach shots and accepts only certain type shots into its greens. St. Andrews encourages you to invent shots and/or play shots that you normally don't attempt (and certainly never practice!) like putting onto the sixth and eighteenth green from seventy yards away.
4. Half par holes - on any given wind day, St. Andrews might offer up four to eight half par holes (3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 14, & 18) to someone like John Daley or Dustin Johnson. Playing with them and waiting for six of the par four greens to clear is a nightmare (ask Ben Crenshaw re: his experience in that regard). At PV, there aren't near the same number of dilemmas and therefore, golfers aren't likely to stretch outside of their comfort zones to take a gamble. Essentially, it is easier to stick with a game plan at PV rather than attempt something stupid, which St. Andrews is great at achieving.
5. The front third of greens that slope from front to back - The Old Course has many while Pine Valley doesn't. When Tiger Woods crushed the field in the 2005 Open, remember how helpless even he looked at the forward hole locations on the fifth and sixth holes? Hitting in to a par five with a short iron and even a quest for a birdie became a struggle. At PV, the front of the green slope toward the golfer as a catcher's mitt, except for its superb fourth and eighteenth greens. This era of 'checked unchecked' technology allows players to get closer and closer to the greens off the tees at St. Andrews, only to be thwarted by the front hole locations on the front to back greens. PV doesn't have the same defense mechanism against technology as St. Andrews.
6. Element of mystery. Drive safely left on the fourth at St. Andrews and hit your approach and ...who knows? Is it on the green? In the deep greenside bunker (and if so, how close to the steep face)? Or did the ball run through the back? Only after walking forward for a while do you suss out your ball's fate. Hence, St. Andrews keeps you off balance that extra little bit as you are never allowed to be but so comfortable. Meanwhile, the visuals at Pine Valley are more straightforward - you generally know your fate which makes it easier for good players to keep their wits about them. Plus, PV is all about golf, so you are free to focus on the task at hand. At. St. Andrews, you have the hubbub of people milling around the first tee and seventeenth green, the cars down the eighteenth fairway (don't ask), dogs barking, babies crying, etc. . With more extraneous stuff going on, it's easier for the golfer's mind to wander.
7. More good AND bad breaks are likely to occur over your round at The Old Course than at Pine Valley. The quirky features at The Old Course see to it that that is the case. At Pine Valley, you get what you deserve by and large. Hence, you hit a poor shot and miss a wide fairway, you are more likely to accept what befalls you. At The Old Course, you rifle a shot down the middle of the twelfth fairway, it takes a hard bounce into one of five blind bunkers, and you conduct a pity party for the next several holes, moping and sobbing that no one loves you. In the process, your round unravels.
8. Firm playing conditions coupled with the wind - St. Andrews has more of both than Pine Valley. More importantly, given those two factors, St. Andrews has much more short grass than PV and it is short grass coupled with fast and firm (and windy!) playing conditions that gives the best players in the world fits. Hard to believe but it is true: Short grass over eighteen holes can work on the elite golfer's mind more than, for instance, the jungle to the right of the fifth at PV.
9. The natural consequence of several of the points above is that St. Andrews requires the ace golfer to control the flight of his ball more than Pine Valley. A hole like the Eden on a windy day eats up the helpless range jockey who is used to stamping out one perfect swing after another and who lacks the ability to make on the spot changes in controlling his golf ball's trajectory. Great courses need to challenge all aspects of a player's ability - and The Old Course certainly does so.
10. Finally, better than any course I know, St. Andrews has a way of engaging - and then disengaging - the golfer throughout the round. You play the world's greatest par five and then you play the unlovable Cartgate In, which somehow seems to elicit one extra stroke from you because you are girding your loins for what lies ahead. At Pine Valley, you screw on your grand chess master's face on the first tee and never dare lose concentration because, alas, you are stuck playing one relentlessly great hole after another. That's no so at St. Andrews but after you three putt the tenth green for reasons unexplained, you might not gather your composure in time to avoid making a real meal at the Eden.
There is my starting list, which dwells on the mental complexities posed by The Old Course. No wonder that the five great golf minds (B. Jones, J. Nicklaus, N. Faldo, T. Woods and R. Morrissett) have fared well there, winning both Claret Jugs and Morrissett Cups
.
What points would you add? As I type this, I notice that I didn't mention how paint-worthy Pine Valley is. By that I mean, so many of its greens are handsomely framed by trees and when contrasted with the sandy soil, PV represents an artist's dream come true. The downside is that means that depth perception isn't an issue, certainly at least not relative to The Old Course where it is very hard to see and trust what your eyes are telling you.
Conversely, does anyone care to come to the aid of Pine Valley (as I recall, it has a few redeeming features as well
)? I say this for her: I like it more than The Old Course in large part because its hazards are rooted in nature. I DESPISE the slavish nature in which the faces on all the bunkers at St. Andrews have been revetted. On the very natural course that repeats nothing, the powers that be chose to repeat something unnatural.
What say you? Is it easier for a scratch golfer to break par at St. Andrews or Pine Valley (the comparison is especially fair given that they both only have two par fives)? And is that the same answer to the question as to which plays easier for a ten handicapper?
Cheers,