Golf Vacations UK is offering guaranteed times at St. Andrews Old Course this year, from April through August, including golf and accommodations.
For
an individual or a group, tee times on the Old are hard to come by and
must be booked months, even up to two years, in advance. About half of
the starting times are put into a daily lottery drawn for the next
day's play. Also, sometimes individual golfers just hang out to see if
they can get into a foursome that is missing a player for some reason.
To obtain a guaranteed tee time in advance on the Old Course on your own, you can place a reservation with the St. Andrews Links Trust;
it's a rather complicated procedure. Tee times are often gettable on
the other courses that the Trust represents (New Course, Jubilee
Course, Eden Course, Strathtyrum Course, Balgove Course, The Castle
Course--all gorgeous, highly rated courses).
To bypass the
reservation process, look into packages that include accommodations and
tee times, such as those offered by these reliable companies:
The 2010 Open Championship will be at St. Andrews, July 15-18.
The last two Opens at St. Andrews were won by Tiger Woods, in 2000 and
2005. For the first time in a century, the famous 17th "Road Hole" is
being lengthened, and this will also be the first year of high
definition TV broadcast.
Every golfer dreams of a pilgrimage to St. Andrews,
the birthplace of the game, the site of the oldest and most revered
golf course in the world––the Old Course. From Old Tom Morris to Tom
Watson and Tiger Woods, for over six centuries and in more than two
dozen British Opens, players have battled the elements on this
formidable, true linksland, against bracing winds off the North Sea, in
rain and swirling mists, through prickly, knee-high gorse, across
rolling dunes and into grassy hollows. You will find no waterfalls or
railroad ties, no palm trees; no trees at all, just low mounds and long
stretches of scruffy, natural heathers, and brooms, shockingly deep pot
bunkers and mammoth double greens, each with two flags, swept dry and
hard by the nearly unceasing breath of the sea. Practice your
knock-down shots, pitch-and-runs and long, long putts; stay low at all
costs.
If you are fortunate enough to snag a tee time on the Old, come early
to experience the look and the palpable spirit of the place. Shoulder
to shoulder, the picturesque buildings of the ancient town create a
backdrop unlike any other in golfdom. Expect an audience on the first
tee––a crowd of sightseers, townspeople, caddies and golfers is
omnipresent, rapt as the starter calls, “Gentlemen, hit away.”
A decent drive earns applause, an errant one gets sympathetic sighs. As
you step across the hallowed stones of Swilican Bridge on the finishing
hole, look up to see the venerable members of the Royal and Ancient,
single malt whiskeys in hand, peering out the bay windows of their
clubhouse.
Read more here about St. Andrews
Founder/editor of BestGolfResortsofTheWorld.com, Karen Misuraca
is a travel and golf writer from the California Wine Country. She
follows the little white ball around the world and blogs about International Golf Travel at www.examiner.com. And, she also maintains a blog on Sustainable Travel.
