Scotland: An Open Country
The people of Scotland want to show off their magnificent golf. The rest of the world needs to take lessons.
One of the most stunning parts about golf in Scotland is the sheer accessibility. Golf courses are public land, with individual clubs given the right to play golf on the courses. These rights were often granted hundreds of years ago. For example, a charter for Archbishop John Hamilton granted the people of St. Andrews the ability to play golf on the links land back in 1552.
The status of courses as public land means that with very few exceptions, non-golfers can walk through the holes on their way to town, to the beach, or just because they want to. It can lead to some awkward waits on tees when you don’t want to nail an innocent pedestrian with a drive, but it’s something that all golfers must accept. It’s honestly a little nerve-racking because it means that you can frequently get observers, and with the status of my golf game that’s never a good thing.
As individual golf clubs have been granted the right to use the courses, that means that most all of them welcome visitors. For example, the Crail Golfing Society, which was formed in 1786 (yes, 1786), makes a ton of revenue from non-members from around the world playing their two courses. Many of the Crail Golfing Society members love the visitor play, as they get to show their magnificent courses off and it keeps their annual dues low (around 600 pounds/year).
Even the Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, which has rights at the Muirfield Golf Course and is known as one of the most exclusive clubs on one of the best courses in the golf world, allows visitors every Tuesday and Thursday.
In the US, of course, this is entirely not the case. Many of the best courses are shrouded in an air of exclusivity, with the common golfer only able to dream of playing them, let alone simply walking their hallowed properties. For example, out of Golf Digest’s top 20 courses in the US, only one is public. That’s Pebble Beach, which is exceptionally expensive.
Now, visitor fees in Scotland aren’t always cheap. To play a course like North Berwick, it’ll cost 200 pounds. The Old Course in St. Andrews will run you 295 pounds. It can be expensive, but at least you can enjoy the splendor of incredible golf (the top courses in the country) without having to be extraordinarily well-connected. And, if you do have some connections to members, the greens fees will often be much, much cheaper.
I hadn’t really considered this mentality, that golf can be a public game
Up until two weeks ago, I’ve played my golf entirely in the US, so it just didn’t occur to me that there could be a different reality, one in which all were welcomed to the golf course – pretty much every golf course.
The facilitator for the start of my reflection? A man named Gareth Jack. Gareth lives in the village of Elie, about 25 minutes south of St. Andrews and he’s a golf shop supervisor for the St. Andrews Links Trust, which runs the seven courses in St. Andrews, including the Old Course.
Gareth is a good friend of Dave Warren (who I’ll get to in a later blog post), and he was my gracious host while I was in St. Andrews.
Gareth, like most of the people I met in Scotland, is absolutely golf mad. He religiously follows the professional game, he even stayed up until 4 am to watch the end of June’s US Open.
On his off days, he’ll still likely be at the golf course. He’s a member of the Crail Golfing Society and is one of the many people to hold a St. Andrews links ticket, which grants him free access to the seven courses under the St. Andrews Links Trust for a small fee each year.
After being connected through Dave, Gareth and I held a Zoom call and exchanged a couple of emails. We had never met, yet I could tell he was genuinely excited by my visit. He suggested that we’d play as much golf as possible on some of the best courses in the world.
To be honest, Gareth’s sheer encouragement for my visit was a little shocking. Here I was, a semi-clueless American college student, not to mention a stranger, and Gareth was extending a stunning warmth and hospitality.
Gareth took it upon himself to arrange “games,” which is what Scottish people call rounds of golf, at the New (built in 1895) and Jubilee Courses of St. Andrews, as well as the Balcomie Course at Crail.
He also promised to enter us in the ballot for the Old Course, the crown jewel of Scotland and the course with the single-most influence in the modern game.
With its status, the Old Course is almost completely booked the entire year. A few tee times are opened each day for a random draw, and people that miss their tee times are replaced by individuals who spend the night outside the starter’s hut, which I was fully willing to do if Gareth and I’s ballot entry wasn’t lucky.
Gareth’s insight was fantastic
For many, coming to St. Andrews is a pilgrimage of a lifetime. For Gareth, it’s literally his job.
During our time together, Gareth consistently remarked that one of his favorite parts about his work at the golf courses is seeing the Home of Golf through the eyes of visitors. He said it’s a little easy to get desensitized to the splendor of the history and culture because it’s his daily life.
During our first round together, on St. Andrews’ New Course, I could tell Gareth experienced genuine joy as he watched me figure out how to play golf on a links course.
I was ecstatic to be able to use my putter from 20 yards off the green, which is almost impossible in the United States. I also thought it was awesome that I was forced to hit a ball sideways out of a bunker, as links bunkers tend to be much deeper and narrower, preventing any advancement of the ball.
As we walked the fairways, Gareth enlightened me with facts about the courses and the history of golf. He was legitimately an encyclopedia, seemingly having a fact for every hole or course feature.
Gareth genuinely cared that I enjoyed my experience and got the most out of my time in Scotland. He was so happy to be able to show off some of the greatest golf in the world, and proud of Scotland’s rich heritage in the game.
We personally had good fortune, as we won the ballot for the Old Course
While sitting in the Newark Airport Holiday Inn Express during my flight fiasco, I received Gareth’s message that we would be playing the Old Course. This news was even more special to me because our tee time was on the Fourth of July.
I found something poetic about playing the most significant course in golf on the USA’s Independence Day. It was fireworks in a different form.
Gareth acted as my course guide, as he’s played the course more times than he could count. He gave me lines off the tees and special insight into the massive double greens, with the largest being around 37,000 square feet.
I was floating the entire time as we played the Old Course. The history and the atmosphere combine to give you a special sense of airiness. You can’t find that magic anywhere else in the world.
One thing I had consistently remarked to Gareth is that I wanted to try Cameron Smith’s putt that he hit from behind the famed Road Hole bunker on the seventeenth hole of the final round in last year’s Open Championship.
If you haven’t seen it, watch the video before continuing to read. It was one of the most remarkable golf shots I’ve ever seen, especially under the pressure of the lead of the Open Championship at the Home of Golf.
We finished our round up in near darkness, so I aimed my second shot at the general area of the 17th green, and coincidentally ended up in almost exactly the same spot as Cameron Smith did. The pin was further left, so I putted the ball around the left side of the bunker and left myself about 10 feet for par.
I did miss my par putt, but the chance to play from the same spot as one of the most clutch shots in golf history doesn’t just happen everywhere, especially in the United States.
Throughout my trip, my missed putts and poor shots didn’t matter
As Gareth consistently remarked, “golf is not about the score you shoot, it’s about the experience and the people you meet.”
And that’s entirely true. A bad shot didn’t mean anything, for me it was an opportunity to have a true Scottish links golf experience. I mean, how could I be mad taking the same steps as people like Old Tom Morris, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods?
It couldn’t have happened without Gareth. He helped an American student he had never met and had only exchanged one Zoom call with play 72 of the most fun and beautiful holes in golf, just because he loves the game.
I saw this in action time and time again throughout my travels in Scotland. I exchanged phone numbers or email addresses with multiple people who promised to get a game together the next time I was in the country. I’ll do the same if they come to North Carolina. While I may not see some of these people for a number of years, there’s no doubt in my mind that I’ll be teeing it up with them someday.
This open and welcoming culture, centered around the beauty and magic that golf consistently brings, is what golf needs more of at this current inflection point in the professional game.
It’s the people that make the experience, not the money, scores, or power, and I think it would do everyone some good to remember that.
A trip to Scotland to see what golf should be never hurts, either.
Questions, comments, ideas, and feedback can be directed to jpatterson@unc.edu. You can find me on Twitter @JakeWPatt or my Instagram @Loopers_Line. If you really want to get to know me, check out my LinkedIn.
Thank you to Bethany Phillis for serving as my creative project mentor and to Caroline Maness for designing Looper’s Line’s logo. Additional thanks to Gareth for all of his generosity and golf dedication.