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 "Please, God, don't let him top it. Let him hit a good one here." Stepping on to the first tee of the Old Course at St. Andrews, waiting nervously to tee off in the shadow of the stately clubhouse of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, is one of golf's great moments. Having the chance to do so with your eldest son makes it one of life's most memorable experiences, as well. It's also a little nerve-wracking. It was something I'd been looking forward to since the day my son, Red, was born, and finally, there we were; he with his caddie, I with mine. The wee lad of 13 could play. But how would he fare in a four-club wind on a course so steeped in tradition that the fore caddies are ghosts? If his opening tee shot (a cut driver down the right-center of the fairway) was any indication, he'd do fine. In fact, he played well. Real well. Though he'd never beaten me in a head-to-head match, he had me by three strokes at the turn. And when his tee shot at the par-4 12th headed way, way right - toward the beach - I knew it was his day when it hit a rock and caromed back into the fairway, a point from which he calmly rifled a 5-wood into the teeth of the wind to 15 feet and then nonchalantly two-putted for a half. By the time we reached 17, I'd cut his lead to one. On the tee, he and his caddy were whispering to each other, planning how to play the hole and bury the old man in the Road Bunker. We both hit perfect tee shots - power fades that carried the old railway shed and found the middle of the fairway. My 2-iron second shot found the green, while his approach rolled just over the putting surface - but short of the road itself. Heading to the 18th tee, we were all square.  The last time I'd played this most famous of finishing holes, it had been driver and lob wedge to set up an easy birdie. But this day I had to pound a driver and pummel a 2-iron just to reach the front of the green. For the lad, a 3-wood second shot wasn't quite enough to get there. We both bogeyed, shook hands, and celebrated the halved match over a quick lunch in the clubhouse. He'll take me down before long, but it didn't happen that day at the Old Course. We'd tied with wind-blown 83s. And to his credit, in all the years we've played together, he'd never asked for a single stroke and he didn't that day, either. He wants to beat me straight up, mano-a-mano, and someday soon he will. In the meantime, our stroll around the Old Course was but one highlight of our weeklong trek around eastern Scotland. It had begun with a visit to London, where an old friend, Doug, and his wife Bette Anne live. With my ex-pat friends, we did the town, saw the sights, and even got in a practice round at the Stoke Park Club, the venerable old course where James Bond defeated Goldfinger on the last hole of their big-money match. It's a private club with a wonderful parkland course, and it got the rust off our swings before we headed north to Scotland. The early part of our Scotland visit was spent east of Edinburgh, in the section of Scotland known as East Lothian. There are 19 splendid courses in the area, and within an hour of landing at Edinburgh airport, we were drinking in the bracing, cool air and lacing up our shoes at Gullane Golf Club. Gullane boasts three outstanding courses; we played Gullane No. 1, a true championship course within shouting distance of Muirfield that's used for Open Championship qualifying when the event comes to Muirfield. Our host there, Alan Minto, golf liaison for the East Lothian Council, showed us how links golf is played as he fashioned long, running drives that split fairways and struck low punch shots into the wind that invariably found their targets. The course runs up and down Gullane Hill and offers not just thrilling golf, but spectacular views. Red's introduction to links golf couldn't have come at a better spot. (He quickly learned how difficult it is to pull a trolley through knee-high fescue.) After our round, we visited the Heritage of Golf Museum, next to the Gullane pro shop, and were given a tour by Archie Baird, its proprietor and one of Scotland's most knowledgeable golf historians. Make sure to schedule a visit there if you're in the area. Then it was off to Kilspindie House, the charming hotel where we'd sup and sleep for the next few nights. The rooms and cuisine are first-rate here, there's a wonderfully intimate feeling to the inn, and hotelier Malcolm Duck saw to our comfort personally during our stay as he does with all his guests. We even got to take in the Manchester United-Chelsea championship game in the hotel's lounge, accompanied by 100 of the town's very vocal local football fans. 
We didn't play Muirfield on our trip to East Lothian (few people can or do), but didn't consider it a step down in any way to have the privilege of teeing it up at North Berwick Golf Club instead. North Berwick has some of the most oft-copied holes and features in golf.Here, you play the original Redan Hole and test yourself on the original Biarritz green. There's also a hole called "Perfection" that more than lives up to its name. And the views out to sea toward seabird-covered Bass Rock are stunning. One of the unique features at North Berwick is that several holes play over stone walls. Red discovered, after narrowly missing a birdie putt on "Redan," that a topped or thinned tee shot here can be dangerous - and leave you with a longer second shot that your first. If you're playing at North Berwick early, plan to grab that morning cup of coffee at your hotel, though. When we asked an elderly local man who was out walking his sheep dog where we might find a cup of Joe prior to our round, he scratched his beard and said: "I don't know. It's a bit early for coffee, isn't it?" Leaving East Lothian wasn't easy, and before we did we managed to score a round at The Renaissance Club at Archerfield, a new private course that's architect Tom Doak's only foray into Scottish golf to date. My good friend Stewart Smith was the girector of golf there and was only too pleased to show us the big, brawny course at Renaissance, which abuts the hallowed grounds of Muirfield. While not a seaside course per se, Renaissance plays firm and fast like a links course, and Doak's routing and design make each hole as challenging and memorable as the next. Stewart taught Red how to hit a proper knock-down shot here, and it was a shot that came in handy as we made our way around this course, which is destined to challenge its famous neighbor as the sternest test of golf in this part of the country. From East Lothian we ventured north around the Firth of Forth to the Kingdom of Fife, home to the seven Links Trust courses in St. Andrews and a host of other magical golfing grounds. Our first stop here was at The Castle Course, the Links Trust's newest gem. This David McLay Kidd design hadn't opened to the public yet when we visited (it's open now), but a tour of the course showed that it will rival its older siblings in every way. Set hard by the sea, Kidd's design here is a cavalcade of surprises. Fairways that look unmercifully tight from the tee, for example, turn out to be generously wide. They're laced with hairy chocolate drop mounds that can give you challenging lies, though, so even finding the fairway is not guarantee of a good stance or easy second shot. The greens, you'll find, are every bit as vexing as they look. None is flat, most are severe, with undulations galore and multiple tiers that you'll have to find a way to negotiate. It won't be long before the 17th hole here, a par 3 that plays over a rocky corner of St. Andrews Bay, rises to the top of everyone's must-play list when they come to this part of the world. Hitting this green will be something to crow about, for sure. The course is just a stone's throw from the Fairmont St. Andrews Hotel, where we stayed for a couple nights. This spacious and modern hotel has brought Fairmont luxury and service to the area and boasts two fine courses itself, which are currently undergoing some design changes and improvements. When complete, the Torrance and Devlin Courses here will undoubtedly be popular with visitors. Just down the coastal road from the Fairmont lies Kingsbarns Golf Club, a must-play in this part of Scotland. Kingsbarns opened in 2000 and immediately was ranked among the great links courses of Scotland. The 12th hole here, a par 5 that sweeps down from a hill and follows the rocky shoreline to the left before ending at an elongated, ocean-hugging green, is one of the most spectacular settings for golf that you'll ever see. And the finishing hole, which requires a carry over a burn to a hilltop green, is one that gives even the professionals who play there each year in the Dunhill Links Golf Championship fits. The course, which has only been open since 2000, has the look and feel of a much older course. No two holes are alike, and all of them are unforgettable. The town of St. Andrews itself is a charming place to visit, and there's no better place to use as your base camp than the Old Course Hotel. The hotel, which overlooks the Old Course's famous Road Hole, is not only the best hotel in St. Andrews, it is arguably one of the finest in the U.K. Ever since it was taken over by the Kohler hotel group (of Whistling Straits and Blackwolf Run fame), the hotel has been polished to a fine veneer. Five stars may not be enough. 
From the balcony of your lavishly appointed room you can watch play on the Old Course (pictured right, 1st tee) from dawn 'til dusk. Andif you're looking for gourmet cuisine or an upscale bar in St. Andrews, you won't need to leave the cozy confines of the hotel. What's more, there's an outstanding golf course that's affiliated with the hotel: The Duke's Course. This heathland-style course has been around for a while, but only after its recent redesign at the hands of Pete Dye did it finally get the recognition it deserves. Managing director David Scott calls it St. Andrews' best-kept secret - but the secret is out. The hairy-lipped bunkers and omnipresent gorse here make The Dukes Course one of Scotland's great inland challenges (especially if you're a 13 year-old who's not used to playing 35-yard explosion shots from huge and deep greenside bunkers).One of my favorite courses in the world isn't a long course or a famous one. In fact, it doesn't even have a par 5. The course at Elie features 16 par 4s and two par 3s - set in one of the most endearing locations on the planet. The town of Elie is small and unassuming. In the summer, it's a beach resort town for Scotsmen. But its allure extends far beyond the old country. My friend Don Hancock moved there last winter to work on a novel and wound up staying months longer than he'd planned. He'd become a caddie (at Kingsbarns) and said that Elie had stolen his heart just as it had mine. From the opening tee shot, a blind one up and over a hill, to the final green, Elie is enchanting. Just keep the ball out of the rough here; the fescue is so dense and tangled that you won't find your ball or anyone else's. James Braid called the 13th hole here, "Croupie," the best par 4 in the world. Now, Braid designed the hole, so his objectivity may be called into question. But I don't dispute his conclusion. It's one of those holes that you look forward to from the first tee on, just as Elie is the kind of course you look forward to playing from the minute you step off the plane. Visiting the Golf Pub (an unassuming hole-in-the-wall situated near the fourth tee) for a bit of post-round refreshment with your son is de rigeur if you're in the area. Our final round in Scotland, fittingly, was hosted by one of the oldest golf clubs in the world, the Crail Golfing Society, which was instituted in 1786. Crail offers two courses, the newer Craighead Links, which was designed by American architect Gil Hans and opened in 1998, and the Balcomie Links, which was built under the supervision of Old Tom Morris in the late 1800s. Both offer endless views of the sea and a range of challenges that will test every part of your game. For our final round of the trip, we had the pleasure of playing with a young South African, Christiaan Van Der Merwe, who was spending the summer bartending at Crail and playing a little golf in events like the British Amateur Championship. A strapping 20 year-old, Chris braved the elements in shorts that sunny but breezy day and showed us how easy it is to hit 280-yard 2-irons. As we played, he also told us a bit about the history of the course and pointed out the best lines from the tees and which bunkers to avoid. The Balcomie course isn't a long course by any means. But it's tricky. The small greens put an emphasis on accurate approach shots and because the sea is your constant companion as you play, the ocean breezes demand careful club selection. Red had what was probably his worst round of the week here, despite it being a course where he should've scored well. But it had been a long and memorable visit, and it didn't surprise me a bit when he fell sound asleep at the Edinburgh airport waiting for our flight back to London. Links golf will do that to you. As we flew back across the Atlantic a few days later, I wondered to myself what a 13 year-old would take away from a trip like the one we'd been on together. Would he really appreciate the places we'd been, the sights we'd seen, the things we'd done? Would I have at that age? I got my answer somewhere west of Heathrow and east of Gander when Red turned to me from the movie he was watching and asked, "Can we go to Scotland again sometime?" If I have my way, it's a question I hope to be able to answer in the affirmative very soon. Thinking of making some memories of your own in Scotland? One tour company that I would highly recommend is Haversham and Baker. Major Basil Haversham and his sergeant-at-arms, Sam Baker, have built a worldwide following among discriminating travelers by exceeding expectations at every turn. Contact them at www.haversham.com. |
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