Reverse layout rolls back the years

The Old Course “backwards” that Tiger Woods is so keen to play was actually the original form of the layout in the 1830s, when they first started to cut two holes on the vast greens, writes Steve Scott.

Previously, the Old Course had been played to originally 11 holes that were played out and back to form a 22-hole course. In the 1750s this changed to just nine cut holes, also played out and back, which was golf’s first 18-hole course.

In 1832, two holes were cut on each green to allow more play on the links. Once the famous double greens became established in this way, gradually the fairways were widened to match, separate teeing grounds were established and the course was played in a “left hand” or what we know now as the “reverse” loop.

However playing the right-hand loop – today’s established configuration – was also common. For 40 years, the layout changed on a weekly, sometimes daily, basis.

When the present first green – the 17th had served as a double green with the first until then – was established in the late 1860s the natural inclination became to play the course “right-handed” or counter clockwise.

By 1873, when the first Open Championship was played at St Andrews, it was the right-hand course that was in customary use and has been preferred ever since.

On intermittent occasions, however, the course has reverted to the left-handed loop for a limited time, with the first tee shot to the 17th green, the second tee to the 16th, and so on.

The result is that many bunkers that appear to have no use in the right hand configuration come into play, notably Cheape’s at the reverse second, and many others.

The course also becomes a slicer’s dream as opposed to the right-handed track, which traditionally favours a right-to-left ball flight.

It was last played to the lefthanded configuration in 2009, and, although the St Andrews Links Trust are open-minded on suggestions that it could return, “it would have to be capable of fitting into our already busy course calendar,” said a spokesman.