The pack of roving American journos walked down the quaint street, lined by centuries-old stone buildings and rich with ghosts from the games past, when a familiar face appeared. That, in itself is hardly unusual at St. Andrews, which is to the global golf scene what the atom is to molecular makeup.
During British Open tournament weeks, when its the nucleus of the sport, it represents the most concentrated bits of energy imaginable. The prominent sports agent the writers had run across, after a brief chat, noted that a top player was housed at a nearby locale, prompting the scribes to amble across the cobblestone street.
Inside, with a window open on the ground floor of his rented home for the week, was Davis Love and his wife, watching the telly. One playful writer stuck his head in the window, and in a kids falsetto voice, said, “Mr. Love, Mr. Love, can I please have your autograph?”
Love looked across the room and recognized the source, then hilariously shot back, “After the round, boys, after the round.”
Only, and I mean only, at St. Andrews.
For largely undisclosed reasons, Royal & Ancient officials havent yet declared where they will play the 2015 British Open, and the general public assumption is that the host organization will continue its five-year migration to the Old Course, the games Lourdes, Mecca and Sistine Chapel rolled into one package. Its even located just outside the backdoor of the R&A headquarters.
But renewing the timeline is apparently a big assumption, even though the Open has been staged at St. Andrews in 2000, 2005, 2010 and everybody seems to love the rhyme, reason and rhythm of the five-year plan.
“With regard to the 2015 question, I seem to be getting asked this a huge amount the last couple of days,” R&A chief Peter Dawson said this week when pressed for an answer. “I dont know why people are asking it. Is there a hare running on this one?”
Are there harebrains running your organization?
“I have nothing surprising to tell you,” Dawson said. “We have announced [future sites] up to and including 2014. We will be announcing 2015 later this year, and I doubt if it will be bothering your pens at the time, but well just have to wait and see.”
Forget taking the fifth. The Home of Golf deserves as many home games as possible, for myriad reasons.
“Its my favorite place to play golf in the world,” Stewart Cink said. “Its a variety. Theres not another word to describe it. You can pick every superlative that there is out there for variety, and thats what it is. Scott Verplank had a great quote that I read recently that said, The Old Course will teach you everything you need to know about playing golf, and I think that sums it up pretty well.”
Cink didnt even mention the atmosphere at St. Andrews, which is unlike any in the game. At no other venue in the game can fans reasonably expect to see players, caddies and celebrities dining out en masse during the tournament, soaking up the culture and scenery, or just plain hoisting a cold pint to help decompress after the round.
If the R&A unnecessarily delays renewing its vows with the St. Andrews Links Trust, which runs the Old Course, then they should be cobblestoned. At the risk of sounding like the TV commercials for the World Golf Hall of Fame, if you havent been to an Open at St. Andrews, youve simply got to go. There is no comparable experience in the professional game.
It took, oh, about six hours in St. Andrews to figure ou especially on the PGA Tour, where players stay at high-end hotels scattered all over large cities at regular tour stops. The most vivid color at St. Andrews isnt really found on the most famous golf course on the globe, but within a three-street radius surrounding the course.
Theres a popular haunt located on a key street corner about three blocks from the course called the Dunvegan Hotel bar, which was packed with players, caddies, swing coaches and a few media types on Saturday night before tournament week. It was like that every night, with crowds spilling out into the streets. Some bars employed people to keep Americans drinking libations from straying into the street and getting hit by oncoming traffic, which of course, heads in an unfamiliar direction.
The local cops were out in uniformed packs, largely watching, occasionally interacting, prominent in their presence but minimalist in their intrusion. Outside the Dunvegan late Saturday night after the third round, one St. Andrews policemen, seeing a slew of Americans lined up to take pictures on the street with CBS broadcaster Jim Nantz, walked up quietly behind one of the golf fans and gave him the rabbit-ears behind his head just as the picture was snapped. Then the guy sidled away, acting all innocent and invisible.
“Saw that,” I said. “You are so busted.”
The cop smiled broadly and walked away, clearly enjoying the laissez-faire attitude of the games epicenter for the week. Even the cops have fun.
On Wednesday, a pack of scribes ran into former British Open champ Tom Weiskopf, who was working as an ESPN analyst for the week. Weiskopf, cruising down the sidewalk as he headed off for dinner, stopped and stood on a street corner to hold court for 10 minutes on why he thinks the R&A is a better steward than the U.S. Golf Association, the Old Courses timeless design, his love for driveable par-4 holes and a few other topics du jour. Then he and his wife, arm in arm, headed off for dinner. That memorable episode sure isnt being repeated in Augusta, Ga., thats for sure.
Yet there was no scene that was more representative of the St. Andrews scene than what took place after Louis Oosthuizens award ceremony on Sunday night, when thousands of fans roamed the parallel first and 18th fairways.
A parade of American journalists, camped inside the media center and cranking out final-round stories, left their laptops to survey the crazy scene, where fans lined up to take photos of the Swilcan Burn, the iconic R&A clubhouse from the famed Valley of Sin near the 18th green. Some of us took pictures of fans taking pictures.
A guy with a vaguely Eastern European accent asked me to take a photo of him with his camera, with the first tee and clubhouse in the background. Two other guys did likewise. Elderly women and toddlers posed for shots as people ran around in the fairway like it was Central Park on a New York Sunday.
Think youll ever see a comparable scene at Winged Foot, Oakmont or Augusta National? If we do, Tasers and SWAT teams will be involved.
The charm of the site and city is palpable, like the wind, rain and haar (the Scottish term for fog) that enveloped the city during various times at the week. Small wonder that golfers have made pilgrimages for hundreds of years.
No question, the city has plenty of historical significance beyond golf. Tour groups ambled around the town even as the tournament was being played, with guests checking out the ruins and historical sites that predate the birth of the United States. In the U.K., “olde” takes on a whole new meaning compared to what passes for history in the States.
Unlike at other venues, a fun camaraderie typically unfolds at St. Andrews. Over the course of the week, British Open golfer Todd Hamilton bought me a beer, as did Sergio Garcias caddie, Glen Murray, and the guy who owns Loudmouth Pants company, those obnoxious britches that John Daly wears. I forked over a few pounds and bought libations for Ernie Els veteran caddie, Rikki Roberts, who seemed to enjoy the nightlife as much as anybody. Daytime isnt bad, either.
“They should have the Open here every year,” Roberts said.
No argument here.
In what seemed to be a moment of personal kismet, I ran into rising American player Jeff Overton late Sunday night outside a crowded restaurant. Overton had been kind enough to let me squire him around the Old Course a week earlier as he played his eye-opening first practice round at the most venerable site in the game.
Seven days later, he had just finished T11, had played the first two rounds with Oosthuizen, and thus had quickly dived deep into Old Course lore. Sitting at a dining table outdoors with his caddie, parents and girlfriend, Overton summed up his inaugural trip in fine fashion.
“Pretty amazing place,” Overton said. “That scene when you play the 18th, with all the fans, in the grandstands and along the street, playing back toward the clubhouse, its pretty special. Awesome.”
Its just as unforgettable on our side of the ropes, too.
