I just returned from a golf outing at the Home of Golf, in the lands of Fife, Scotland. Fife is a county located in Southeastern Scotland accessible only by a strip of land from the West and the North Sea from the East. Its primary coastal city, St. Andrews, was founded when a ship carrying unusual cargo, the partial remains of the apostle St. Andrew wrecked during a storm along its coast centuries earlier. It was here, in these hallowed grounds, that the game of golf would be born.

A Brief History ~
Andrew, along with his brother, Simon Peter, were fisherman who became early followers of Jesus. Like most of Jesus’ Apostles Andrew was later martyred. A few centuries after his death his remains were ordered to be transported to Rome by then Emperor, Constantius II, around 357 A.D. Upon hearing the news that his remains were going to be confiscated and moved they were whisked away and placed aboard a ship bound for “the ends of the earth” [or at least the known ends of the world at that time]. It was a monk from Patras Greece, named Rule, who set sail to accomplish just that when he unexpectedly shipwrecked off the coast of Fife, Scotland in an area known today as the coastal city of St. Andrews [hence the name]. There is so much Scottish/English history to be discovered in this area!

Golfers please read as this is for you!
The Old Course, the first golf course, is located in the Northern coastal area of St. Andrews. The Old Course is closed on Sundays so that the public can enjoy it [without the fear of golf balls flying through the air], so you’ll see dogs and their owners walking around just about everywhere. However, there are signs warning onlookers to stay off the greens. Other than that the public has free reign to explore the course each Sunday. I walked around it [only a few holes] one morning stopping to inspect the iconic bridge only to find a long line of folks waiting to have their photo taken on it. It’s but a small bridge over a narrow stream, so not sure the significance of all this but still this stone bridge remains the number one symbol for The Old Course even today.

Once I reached the clubhouse I saw a few guys with clubs waiting on a tee time. Walking up to one I said, “I thought the Old Course was closed on Sunday?” A golfer responded, “It is, but we’re playing The New Course!” FYI, they have since built a New Course adjacent to the Old one and IT IS open on Sundays. Rest assured, I did not walk the entire Old Course but from what I witnessed, three of the four courses on our travel schedule were way more interesting than this one. However, four golfers from our travel group were lucky enough to be picked to play the Old Course on that Monday morning. Twenty-two had originally signed up to play it and only these four names were drawn at random. From what I understand green fees for a round at the Old Course will run you at least 250 pounds, or approximately $315.00.

If you’re a golfer and you can make it out there you owe it to yourself to play the Glen Golf Course East in North Berwick [pictured]. I included this photo because I remember having a tough time getting on this green. My approach shot was “fat”, short and off the green by about 20 yards when I chipped it in to save a par. Don’t let the first tee box on the Glen Golf Course intimidate you – it’s a fairway that runs flat for maybe 160+ yards before it turns up at a 45 degree angle and forms a large hillside. On the top of this most high hill and about 330 yards later you will find the pin [somewhere, I promise]. Glen Golf Club also sports a West Course which we did not play, but the East course runs along the edge of the North Sea and it’s very beautiful, definitely worth the trip! We also played the Kittocks Course which is owned by the Fairmont Hotel, great hotel and pretty course that borders on the coastline as well. [Prepare for high sustained winds should you find yourself here]. There is also the Duke’s Course [more inland, Southwest of St. Andrews] which has a storied past. [Apparently, Mary Queen of Scots, the first female golfer in history, was said to have played the Duke’s Course in the 1500s, or at least in the same vicinity where the current Duke’s course exists? It was Mary, Queen of Scots, who was later imprisoned by her cousin Queen Elizabeth on the grounds of treason. 19 years later Elizabeth reluctantly signed an order [under pressure] to proceed with Mary’s execution. Two days later, Mary who had become Queen of Scots as only an infant, was beheaded on February 8, 1587, at the age of 44.]

Back to our realities – whenever you play golf in Scotland expect to walk the course using a push cart [on most courses]. “Buggies” as they refer to them in Scotland are still a luxury. Carts are limited and usually reserved for the elderly or those with some disabilities. The good news is upon my return to the U.S. I noticed that I had lost 10 lbs. for the effort! 🙂

More on Scotland’s Past ~
I learned many things about the game of golf on this trip. Golf has a history which runs congruent with the history of Scotland. Golf is not an American Sport, though we would like to claim it as our own. Honestly, the Scots should feel a sense of accomplishment every time an American PGA Tour event is held. Golf is a pure English sport, and more distinctly, a Scottish sport. The Scotsman, “Old Tom Morris”, is known today as the Father of Golf. You will find his tombstone among the burial grounds that surround the St. Andrews Cathedral ruins [in the city]. The grounds of this cathedral date as far back as 400 A.D. which reminds me, I like how the English preserve their history and treat their history with such dignity. The English covet their history [like they own it] taking all the good with all the bad, in all of it. Over here across the pond it seems that the contingent mood these days is to erase our history, and with it how this country was formed. What a shame, for those that try and erase the past are surely doomed to repeat it and suffer a terrible fate. But not the Scots. It was King James of Scotland that first ordered the Bible translated into his native tongue, known today as the King James version of the Holy Bible, still very popular today. Also, it was the Scots who first proposed to unite Scotland with England and Ireland to form what is now known as the “United Kingdom”. While Northern Ireland quickly rectified the gesture, the rest of Ireland did not. Thus, you have a United Kingdom [U.K.] today that contains the territories of Scotland, England, Wales and only Northern Ireland. A union which later became known as simply, Great Britain. And the Brits are a tough bunch, never underestimate the Brits! As an example, these are the same guys that refused to become part of the Eurozone because that would have meant that they be required to drop their [forever] currency, the storied British Pound, in favor of adopting a new Euro. To the surprise of many watchers at that time the Brits declined an invitation to join the Eurozone or to adopt the Euro. If you knew as much as I did about how Great Britain has benefited from that move financially over the years, well let me sum it up in a few words – it was brilliant! The pound sterling still trades at a 25-30% premium to the dollar and a 14% or so premium to the Euro. Always remember something a strong currency exports inflation while a weak one will import it… and so it is, was, and will be with Great Britain. 🙂

Addendum:
Why are golf balls manufactured with a dimpled surface instead of made smooth? Golf balls were originally formed into smooth round balls. What happened later [in the early years of the game] is that golfers discovered the more dents their ball had the farther it would fly. Golf truly is all about physics and a smooth round ball, one without dimples, will experience more windshear drag than one that contains a pattern of dimples. It’s all based on the way that air interferes, creating a drag, when it flows across the surface of a smooth round object propelled through the air. You see the game of golf has always been about physics… and that reminds me, physics was one of my weakest classes! 🙂