St. Andrews still packs an appeal and a test
ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — Jack Nicklaus posed atop the Swilcan Bridge, birdied the last hole he ever played in a major championship and had no intention of ever returning to St. Andrews, not wanting anything to dilute from such a powerful ending to an incomparable career.
That was 17 years ago. And those plans changed when St. Andrews wanted to make Nicklaus an honorary citizen on occasion of the 150th British Open. The only other Americans given that distinction were Bobby Jones and Benjamin Franklin.
It was the first time Nicklaus has been to the Old Course without golf clubs, and his appreciation only seemed to deepen.
“When I came here in 1964, I couldn’t believe that St Andrews was a golf course that would still test golfers of that time,” he said Monday. “It still tests the golfers at this time. It’s a magical golf course. … And to believe the game of golf essentially started here, it just absolutely is mindboggling to me that it still stands up to the golfers of today.”
That’s still to be determined. The Old Course always feels a little older when it’s crusty and firm, yellow and wispy, when the quality of a shot isn’t measure until it hits the ground and starts bouncing along.
But without much wind in the forecast, and with the increasing talent of today’s game, few courses are more vulnerable to low scoring. The par is 72 with only two par 5s, one on each nine. But there are a few par 4s reachable from the tee without strong wind.
U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick was a junior tournament winner at St. Andrews.
“I think with it being firm and par 4s more gettable, it could be a low one as well, weather permitting,” Fitzpatrick said.
Tiger Woods was back on the Old Course on Monday morning for nine holes, keeping up with an unusually busy schedule given the state of his battered right leg. He walked the course with a wedge and putter on Saturday into night and played 18 holes on Sunday. Woods also had the “Celebration of Champions,” a four-hole loop with other R&A champions through the years.
He is a two-time champion at St. Andrews, aware this might be the last time the 46-year-old plays an Open at the home of golf, at least at a high level.
So many others are getting to the course. That includes Collin Morikawa, who won in his first test of true links last year at Royal St. George’s.
“Most courses by the second time I see it, I feel like I have a good grasp,” Morikawa said. “This course takes a little extra learning and memorization because there are so many blind shots and you’re aiming at so many towers, it just kind of meshes into one. There are so many greens that are double greens and big greens that you forget the little slopes, but that’s what you can’t do.”
There are seven double greens. The 18th hole is a par 4 that players can reach off the tee. The 17th hole requires a tee shot over the corner of a hotel and has a road behind it.
Nicklaus devotes most of his time to golf course design, and he has been railing against technology, particularly the golf ball, for allowing the game to get out of hand. He still believes the Old Course can hold its own. And if there is a record score this week?
“So what? That’s sort of the way I look at it,” Nicklaus said. “They’re shooting low now compared to what they shot 100 years ago. But times change and golfers get better, equipment gets better, conditions get better . ... But I don’t think it really makes a whole lot of difference, frankly,” he said. “It’s St Andrews and it is what it is, and it will produce a good champion. It always has.”