The Old Course

Shall we talk about the Old Course a bit?

First, two bits of  arcana...  you've no doubt heard of the double greens... there are seven of them, and

the holes that share greens all add to eighteen.  For those not numerically-inclined, the second hole  shares it's green with the sixteenth.  The fr holes with their  own greens are the 1st, 9th, 17th and 18th.

Secondly, here's the Old Course scorecard:

Par 444 454 434 434 454 444

You'll readily note that there are only two Par-3's as well as two Par-5's, so it's fourteen two-shotters is no doubt a record.  But the other intriguing aspect is that the scorecard is palindromic, as explained in this Golf Club Atlas forum thread:

The Old Course's out-and-in layout and extensive use of double greens creates a routing where every hole parallels another of equal par (the par-5 5th and 14th, the par-3 8th and 11th, and the remaining par-4s). The result of this symmetry is a "palindromic" layout (a palindrome is something that reads the same forwards and backwards).

I know, I've got way too much time on my hands, but remember that one day a year they play the course backwards...

Before we get to the fly-overs, Graeme McDowell laments what could have been for his BFF:

GULLANE, Scotland -- Graeme McDowell has a history with the Old Course at St. Andrews that spans two Opens and some 15 years. 

But when he arrived at the famous links Saturday for a practice round, he couldn't help but think of a player, who at the time he had no idea would not be there next week when The Open begins. 

"It is a golf course I look at and feel the bombers have a great shot around there because they can hit it over trouble,'' McDowell said Thursday at Gullane Golf Club, site of the Scottish Open. "I played it on Saturday, and the first name that jumped into my mind was Rory (McIlroy), you have to say. I really felt like he had a big shot next week.

We spoke earlier in the week about how all of the trouble is right off the tee.  The strtegic challenge is that typically lines to the right off the tee offer the best angles into the greens, but risk bring bunkers and boundaries into play.  The success of bombers (think Nicklaus, Tiger and even John Daly) over the decades is at least partially a result of their ability to carry the bunkers on the lines offering the best angles into greens.

But the guys are all so long these days that I don't think it's as much a factor as it used to be, though there are 4-5 Par-4's that could be reachable in the right conditions.  But this was the money quote to me:

It's going to be green and soft, at least by links standards.''

'Tis a pity, but he's right that that would have suited Rory, and all the more if the Gullane benign weather holds.  So, let's get to our flyovers:

No. 1 - Burn - A simple-looking hole that somehow plays more difficult than it appears:

It's almost impossible to miss the fairway, though before the week is out you'll no doubt see someone drive it into the burn.  The only thing that can keep the boys from eating this hole up will be wind and the front pin location...

No. 2 - Dyke - It's here that the true Old Course begins, with Cheape's Bunker, some 300 yards off the tee.

Shack had this to add about Peter Dawson's dead-of-night handiwork:

And the second hole features two new absurd jacuzzi bunkers on the epic green that I am happy to predict will make this hole play easier (scoring average-wise) in The Open (here are the 2010 averages). Give modern players definition where they didn't have it before and you almost guarantee making things easier for them.

 Short-right was the safe play previously, but that's no longer an option.

No. 3 - Cartgate Out - Shack fills us in on the origin of the name, as well as the underlying strategery of the Old Course:

Cartgate (Out) is so named for the Cartgate bunker guarding the green shared with the fifteenth hole. The hole is really the boilerplate of all good strategic holes: flirt with the hazards and boundary down the right, improve the angle to the green. Bail out left toward the fifteenth fairway and the approach becomes more difficult.

You'll soon get tired of that theme, but this is why folks like Shack and I are so convinced that Spieth is making a big mistake.  There's no one line off these tees, as you need to accurately judge the wind and turf conditions to determine a line that will keep you out of bunkers yet offer the best available line into the pin.  But they'll have it "architected" by Tuesday afternoon...

No 4 - Ginger Beer - We were enjoying our post-golf libations on Sunday when one of the ladies returned to the table with a Moscow Mule.  A discussion ensued about it's contents, which include ginger beer.  A question arose as to whether ginger beer is alcoholic, to which I responded that all I know is that ginger beer is the name of a hole on the Old Course, and in the context I'd presume it packs a punch.

Shack is here to fill in the background:

Ginger Beer was named for Daw Anderson (who oversaw the Old Course and had a shop next to Old Tom). He operated a ginger beer cart on the 4th for approximately 20 years. Daw also sold balls and food and clubs.

Here's the skinny on Old Daw:

Milk?  Didn't see that coming....and get a load of this double green: