Fairway to heaven
The Old Course Hotel and St Andrews have much besides golf to enjoy, writes Alison Gray
An earlier visit to the Fife town of St Andrews during the Stanza poetry festival found me inside the 1970s ambulance employed by the Emergency Poet, being attended to by Nurse Verse and prescribed a piece of writing to take away with me. This is the sort of thing that happens in St Andrews. It’s where movie history is made. It’s where Kate and William fell in love, over coffee and pancakes at the Northpoint Cafe, located on North Street opposite St Salvator’s Hall (the pancakes are truly excellent, of course they would foster romance).
On this visit we are staying at the AA five star Old Course Hotel, Golf Resort and Spa, a member of the Preferred Hotels & Resorts Legend collection. It’s a pleasure to spend time in our luxurious third floor suite overlooking immaculate fairways, the Hamilton Grand, also owned by the Kohler group and beyond to the glorious West Sands.
We dropped into the Road Hole Bar for a drink before dinner, which seemed to be a popular idea among our fellow guests and diners, making for a lively atmosphere, with the buzz of chatter audible above the pleasant tinkling of the resident pianist whose spot cleverly straddles the bar and the Road Hole Restaurant so you can enjoy the music during dinner as well.
A further steady soundtrack of ice being shaken behind the bar revealed that it was a night for a cocktail. As gin lovers we tried the Tanqueray Ten Martini (£16), Tanqueray Ten stirred with an infusion of Lillet Blanc, chamomile and grapefruit, which highlights the fresh fruit botanicals found in the gin itself. Described as “an unusual martini served in an unusual glass...” we got the twist when the drink was presented in a solid brass martini shaped sculpture which came apart – and almost down our fronts – as to prevent tennis elbow it turns out that you only sip from the v-shaped bowl rather than hefting the whole thing upwards every time you take a drink. Good fun and we liked the reminder of the Dorothy Parker quote, “I like to drink a martini. Two at the very most. Three I’m under the table, four I’m under the host.”
All was darkness but the bar and neighbouring restaurant where you also take breakfast look out over the par-4 17th of The Old Course and beyond to the West Sands. Known as the Road Hole, the 17th, one of the most challenging holes in all of the game of golf demands that from a blind tee shot, players must hit over the hotel and avoid a notorious bunker protecting the green. It’s just one of the many quirks that makes The Old Course so special. As Colin Montgomerie has remarked: “If you
said now ‘I’m going to put a tee over an old railway and get you to hit over a hotel’, people would think you were off your head.”
The home of golf is also the home of Scotland’s oldest university, founded in 1413 and the compact cobbled town centre punches above its weight in terms of activities and shopping. There are plenty of little gift shops selling shiny trinkets and jewellery, lots of lovely book shops as you’d expect and in recent years a healthy number of delis to complement the farmers’ market, held on the first Saturday of every month. Explore the ruins of St Andrews Cathedral or on a wet day try the St Andrews Aquarium for seals, penguins, and slightly less expectedly, meerkats.
Still on the animal theme, if you were thinking about getting a dog but weren’t sure what breed to choose, a Sunday walk on the West Sands should help on the research front. It’s a fantastic place for a dog walk and you’ll meet everything from dalmations to disloyal border terriers, who may abandon their owner and require you to kick their ball for them over the two miles of idyllic beach. Our favourite pooch was a 10 month old St Bernard called
Einstein, still covered in puppy fluff, who nevertheless managed to pull his owner off his feet as he set off in hot pursuit of a pal to play with. We even saw a couple of horses tripping through the waves though they might be a bit big for a pet in Edinburgh.
Of course West Sands is most famous for being the location for the opening scenes of 1981’s Chariots of
Fire with the Fife town standing in for Broadstairs in Kent. It’s hard not to hear Vangelis’ epic theme tune in your head as you trot along the sand, even if your efforts might be more Mr Bean from the Olympic Opening Ceremony of 2012 than Ben Cross, the actor who played sprinter Harold Abrahams who nevertheless described the beach run as “hell”.
There are plenty of little gift shops selling shiny trinkets and jewellery
Rooms at the Old Course Hotel St Andrews Golf Resort and Spa, Old Station Road, St Andrews, KY16 9SP (01334 474371, www.oldcoursehotel.co.uk, www.kohlerwatersspa.com, www.preferredhotels.com) start from £307 a night in March. Mother’s Day offers include a champagne afternoon tea with a gift for Mum, (£30 per person) and a Mums On Us lunch or dinner at the Road Hole Restaurant from either the Sunday lunch menu (£22.50 per person for 3 courses) or the Market menu, (£30 per person). The Stanza Poetry Festival runs from 7-11 March; www.stanzapoetry.org