Road Hole …….. par matters

[Anthony Gray]

 [size=78%]https://vault.si.com/vault/1995/07/24/the-author-finds-out-firsthand-why-the-road-hole-at-st-andrews-site-of-this-weeks-british-open-is-the-worlds-hardest-par-4[/size]


  I read this article in 1995.  I was a couple years out of college and scraping by but I knew this is something I wanted to do. Par the Road Hole. So in 1999 I picked up golf. Golfed a little as a kid but did not gold regularly. I had irons from different sets and did not have a metal woods. I would spend Thursday  night at my girlfriends prent’s house. Friday morning I would walk nine holes at the local muni then return to her house and she would be ready for our Friday lunch and movie date. I started to fall in love golf at a very minimalistic course like the ones from my childhood.


 I graduated to irons from the same set and bought metal woods. My girlfriend would clean houses and the owners of one of the houses were golfers. I spoke to them and they had been to St Andrews and had the name of a golf travel company. So there I went. I was on my quest to par the Road Hole. I vowed I would ho every year and play it as many times as it took to par it.


 The first play was in a monsoon and the locals I played with (I got in line for a tee time) hung in with me after one of the players said “I’M WALKING OFF’. The other two told him you can’t, it’s his first time. He replied “I can’t see out of me f@%king glasses” as water ran off his spectacles and nose. So no chance at par.


 I finally did it on around my 10th effort. And a few years after the first trip.


 

[Tom_Doak]

That’s a really good story, that I would’ve been afraid to tell, if it were me.


Merry Christmas, Anthony!

[Garland Bayley]

For a man of your golfing talents Anthony, that was a birdie, not a par.

[Anthony Gray]

That’s a really good story, that I would’ve been afraid to tell, if it were me.


Merry Christmas, Anthony!

 Thank you Tom. The ball is proudly displayed in the waiting room at my office.

[Anthony Gray]

For a man of your golfing talents Anthony, that was a birdie, not a par.

 Albatross. 😉

[Jeff_Brauer]

Well, if we are telling personal Road Hole stories, my best might be launching the blind tee shot over the wall, and knowing it was pretty close to OB.  My caddy muttered, "Thaat's dangerous, lad."  This was at one of our ASGCA meetings in Scotland, and as I get around the corner, here comes Alice Dye, just walking the course that day, telling our group one of our tee shots was just perfect, a few feet from OB, which I knew had to be mine.

[Anthony Gray]

Well, if we are telling personal Road Hole stories, my best might be launching the blind tee shot over the wall, and knowing it was pretty close to OB.  My caddy muttered, "Thaat's dangerous, lad."  This was at one of our ASGCA meetings in Scotland, and as I get around the corner, here comes Alice Dye, just walking the course that day, telling our group one of our tee shots was just perfect, a few feet from OB, which I knew had to be mine.

 This is why we need a like button.

[Jeff_Brauer]