The Swilcan Burn wiggles its way in front of the first green at the Old Course. The green is somewhat easier to approach from the left side than it is from the right.
As a golfer of some 50 years, I did not know what to expect when I stepped onto the first tee at the Old Course at St. Andrews last June. Would I cry because a lifelong dream was finally coming true (or because I was dropping about $700 large for two green fees and caddies
fees, given a usurious exchange rate at the time)? Would I be so intimidated that it would feel as if I were wearing three ski jackets as I attempted to take the driver back for my tee shot? Could I possibly whiff in front of all the people at the adjacent practice green and those waiting to follow us onto the tee box?
Nerves tend to dissipate a little as you actually step onto the first tee at the Old Course and survey the fairway ahead, the widest I had ever faced, if you include the parallel 18th fairway, the equal of two and a half fairways at most wide-open and treeless muni courses. Yet you are still aware that this is the Old Course, and no force was going to take my club back in a perfect arc; I swung as if I were wearing the Michelin Man's suit and used almost all of the two fairway's width, ripping the ball about 45 degrees hard left. Firm fairways and extra roll are not always
benefits, as I found out, my tee ball stopping at the right edge of the 18th fairway, just short of the out-of-bounds fence that guards the adjacent road (the same "Road" as in the Road Hole, #17).
The ring-bound yardage book suggests aiming left off the tee, but only just left of center toward a small gorse bush at the edge of the Swilcan Burn, not left of Glasgow. Remarkably, I had an open and fairly short approach for having hit the ball so far left, and I was able to cut a six-iron just over the Burn which guards the front of the green. After the drive I was almost happy to get down in just three more strokes for a gentleman's bogey 5.
Golf is definitely a game played between the ears, as I found out when faced with the easiest -- and toughest -- tee shot of my life.
Out of bounds lurks off the right side of fairway #1 at the Old Course; therefore, the tendency is to aim well left. My tendency was to aim left and hit it one fairway and a half to the left of where I was aiming.
Tomorrow: Advice on making the Scotland golf vacation affordable (somewhat).