The Old Course at St Andrews: Where Golf Began and Never Stopped

Six centuries of history, one famous bridge and a bunker that has humbled champions

On the 18th at St Andrews, the Swilcan Burn runs across the fairway and a small stone bridge crosses it. Champions have stopped there to turn and wave to the crowd. The bridge is a few feet wide and a few centuries old, and nothing in golf prepares you for the moment you cross it.

That moment is the reason golfers from every corner of the world plan years around a round on the Old Course. St Andrews is not simply a famous course. It is the origin of the game, and playing it feels like stepping into the first chapter of everything you love.

Where it all began

Golf was first played on the links at St Andrews in the early fifteenth century, which is why the town is called the Home of Golf and the Old Course is considered the oldest in the world. No architect drew it from a plan. Players followed the natural ground along the coast, and the holes grew out of the land over generations.

Old Tom Morris, the greatest figure of the early game, shaped much of what you play today, including the first and last holes. The Open Championship has been held here 30 times since 1873, more than at any other course, most recently the 150th in 2022, when Cameron Smith won with a record-low total of 268 for the venue.

The strange genius of the layout

The Old Course is a par 72 of 7,305 yards, and it is unlike any other course you will play. Seven of the greens are shared between two holes, with holes 1, 9, 17 and 18 having their own. Players walk out along the coast, turn at the far end, and walk home along the same ground. It makes the course feel like a single journey rather than eighteen separate holes.

It also makes the strategy wonderfully subtle. The fairways are wide and the rough looks forgiving, and then you notice the bunkers placed with deliberate cruelty exactly where an ordinary shot finishes. The course asks you to think, to read the wind and to play the angle rather than hit the ball as hard as you can.

The hazards everyone talks about

The 14th has Hell Bunker, a vast pit of about 300 square yards that is between seven and ten feet deep. Players have lost whole rounds in it.

The 17th is the Road Hole, with its famous bunker beside the green, which has been called the most notorious hazard in the world. The green sits on a narrow shelf with a road running behind it, and the bunker waits for anything that comes up short. Even the best players in the game treat it with respect.

The 18th is gentle by comparison, but the Valley of Sin, an eight-foot depression in front of the green, has cost players dearly. The walk up that final fairway, with the town closing in around you and the Swilcan Burn behind, is a moment you remember for life.

A course that belongs to the game

The Old Course is public land, held in trust for golfers and townspeople alike, and that sense of belonging is part of what makes it special. Locals walk their dogs across the fairways, golfers from every country wait their turn, and nobody pretends this is anything other than a shared inheritance.

You do not play St Andrews to beat it. You play it to understand where the game came from, and to feel your own round take its place in a very long story.

Why play it with Golf Escape Travel

A round at the home of golf should be enjoyed without distraction. When you play St Andrews with Golf Escape Travel, every detail is handled long before you arrive, so the only thing on your mind is the first tee. We are a specialist golf tour operator. Our founder is personally involved in every itinerary and known for the careful touches that make a trip feel effortless, and for going to any length to get it right.

Our guests are successful and busy, and used to carrying responsibility for everyone else. For a few days they set it down. They walk the oldest course in golf in good company, and they come home with a story they will tell for the rest of their lives.

Start planning your St Andrews golf escape at www.golfescapetravel.com.

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