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Table of Contents
- Why the Local Clubs’ Gold Medal is So Special
- Arrival in the Home of Golf
- An Early Start by the R&A Clubhouse
- Packing Smart for Scotland’s Weather
- Teeing Off on the Jubilee
- Finishing Strong and Back to the Clubhouse
- Classic is Cool: The Final Layer
The weather in Scotland is notoriously unpredictable. Bright and piercing sunshine on a humid summer day can turn into an overcast windstorm at a moment’s notice, and a bitter winter spell can be eerily broken up by a few days of Spring-like charm. To my knowledge, nowhere else has quite the severity of changing conditions than St Andrews. As such, during my time there as a student golfer, I learnt the art of layering the hard way, and, by trial and error, the art of packing only what is truly essential for the likely conditions.
Why the Local Clubs’ Gold Medal is So Special
I travelled up to my former hometown on a Friday night carriage from Kings Cross Station in late May. The weekend was in service of an event hosted by the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews (The R&A), the Local Clubs’ Gold Medal. An event where Sunday access to the Old Course is granted to the best golfers from the ‘Big Four’ Clubs in town (The R&A, The New Club, The St Andrews Golf Club and fortunately for me, the University Golf Club). It is an historic and special event for obvious reasons. Strokeplay, at the Home of Golf, on a Sunday. A combination which baffles the onlooking tourists or dog walkers who could’ve sworn they read that ‘no golf is played on the Old Course on a Sunday’; it is a day for the course to rest and recover, and the land to be loaned back to the folk of the town for their non-golf use. But for a small handful of exempt Sundays a year, this local law is put to one side and the course relishes transforming itself into a battleground for a Gold Medal, be it The Open or the Local Clubs’ Gold Medal.
Arrival in the Home of Golf
Of course, any adventure North from London, given the length of the arduous journey up, demands that one takes full advantage of the facilities on offer and maximise every waking hour. So, before Sunday dawned and the Gold Medal was upon us, we had a full schedule of golf, catching up with old friends reminiscing of our ‘glory days’ at St Andrews University. I couldn’t have been more excited for it.
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An Early Start by the R&A Clubhouse
I woke up on Saturday morning to the sunrise creeping up behind The R&A Clubhouse and glisten the dew that lay low on the 18th green. I hadn’t intended to be up so early, but a combination of childlike excitement for the day ahead and the unmistakable clanging of golf clubs as my hosts ran out of the door, across the road, over the fence and to the first tee of the Old, that had awoken me from my rest. As current University students, they still had the privilege of a full Links Ticket access so they’d balloted kindly without me, for a quick morning loop before our afternoon of 36. The completion of 3 rounds of golf was not in fact uncommon when we were students. In the summertime, it was commonplace and encouraged. We have a very close friend who defied all seemingly possible human limits by playing 3 rounds a day, everyday, for a week. This is not for the faint hearted, and sunscreen is very much advised if we are to learn from his downfalls. Typically, I would take a day off after a 54 hole walk by limiting myself to 36 - for longevity sake.
Packing Smart for Scotland’s Weather
After a morning coffee and witnessing them all sleepily thump long irons down the first, I knew I had 3 hours or so on my hands until they’d be done, so I busied myself with unpacking my bag, cleaning my clubs and prepping for the day ahead. The forecast was shaping up to be glorious, with only a puff of breeze from the South to contend with. Shorts were an obvious choice, as was our Eden Athletic x Glenmuir Tain Polo in white. The soft cotton is light and cooling, and the crisp collar and lustrous white colour pairs well with any form of summery coloured bottom-wear. Charles Gwynn, my partner in crime at Eden Athletic, who was currently somewhere toward the end of the back nine on the Old was also wearing his Tain polo, paired with off white trousers. I had made the executive decision for us that we’d be in matching dress for the rest of the day. The Eden boys were firmly in their Glenmuir uniform. In keeping with my duly diligent student golf education, I curled up my lightweight Johnstone waterproof gilet, which packs down to the size of an Irn-Bru can, and put it into the bottom of my golf bag just in case. You just never quite know what the elements will throw at you on the links.
Teeing Off on the Jubilee
Sure enough, by the time the boys had holed their putts on 18, the wind was humming a little more ferociously. A slower group of tourist golfers had held them up, they protested, so we were running a tad late to our next appointment over at the Jubilee Course. With no time for breakfast but just enough to grab a few extra golf balls, we reunited and hopped the fence onto the Old to make our way to the New Clubhouse. The Jubilee Course had never been one of my favourites whilst I was a student at St Andrews. I typically prioritised the Old, the New and the Eden, naturally, and played these courses in a rigorous rotation. When required to play the Jubilee for a fixture or a university golf match, I’d tee off with the highest of hopes for my round, only to find myself beaten down by the conditions, the army of gorse bushes or the difficult approach shots required to score out there. But returning to the first tee that Saturday morning, something had shifted. Perhaps with a newfound graduate clarity of mind, where even the things you didn’t realise you’d miss about the town become very apparent, I couldn’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be. Up to that point, the last 30 days in St Andrews had been characterised by one very unlikely reality. It had not rained a drop and the sunshine had been relentless. Of course, I could’ve surmised this from the burnt brownish yellow carpet that lay ahead of me in all directions. The barren landscape was only broken by patches of gorse, still kindly in full bloom, and jewel-like islands of green every few hundred yards Now for some proper Links golf, I told myself, as we all proceeded to hit low snorting tee shots down the first to get maximum roll out. Our first round was underway.
For a three-ball we typically play a game called Chaser. It’s a three-ball best ball to start, which morphs into a 2v1 when one person goes up a hole. Once it returns to all square, it’s a 1v1v1 again until the next man makes a charge ahead. It keeps everyone in the game and encourages a full 18 length match on average, with most games coming down to the final green. We believe this is the way it should be.
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Finishing Strong and Back to the Clubhouse
A blistering front nine from another Eden Athletic athlete Will Nugent meant that Charles and I were behind the pace. Out on the furthest tee box at the turn, the wind was a steady one club compensation. A great up and down from long off the green on 9 brought us back into pouncing distance. Pace of play was healthy and it was looking like we were going to have more than enough time to enjoy a leisurely lunch in the New Club before our tee time on the Eden later that afternoon. I think part of my dissatisfaction with the Jubilee Course before that afternoon was never being able to feel like I’d finished strong. The back nine has some serious teeth and demands good golf. Holes 14-17 aren’t the longest, nor the most difficult according to the scorecard, but the tee shots require a fairway, and the approach shots at all cost must find the dance floor. Our lone leader Will found this out the hard way on 15 when, having deliberated on his club choice for longer than I think is allowed in regulation play, airmailed the green into the back cabbage with an 8-iron. Miraculously, we found the ball in a cluster of thick fescue and a double bogey was the most he could scrape out of it. A gentle reminder that you cannot rest on the Jubilee until this stretch of holes are properly navigated.
The next tee shot is one of the hardest on the entire St Andrews Links in my opinion, and it got the better of our low man, twice. 17 was played without a drop shot from the group and so it was that the match came down to the final hole. By this point, we were all down to our Glenmuir polos shirts under the mid-May sunshine, each trying to hole a putt for victory. Handshakes and a dabbed brow or two later, we were recounting the round at the bar in the New Club.
Classic is Cool: The Final Layer
Being back in St Andrews is always special. For students, it is a homecoming. For student golfers, it is a pilgrimage and a revitalisation of spirit. For the first time tourist or returning visitor, it is an homage and a right of passage. We ran back to the house to throw on our Glenmuir Knox sweaters in the hope that the merino wool would keep away the chill once the sun had set later that evening. Walking down to the Eden Clubhouse for our final adventure of the day, before the inevitable antics that would ensue on the Old during the Gold Medal on Sunday, we realised that it is only right that when playing at the Home of Golf for one to adorn their finest golf clothing, and for us that is Glenmuir. Out of respect for the place and its long, timeless history. Classic is cool, we thought. It always has been. Discover the Eden Athletic x Glenmuir collection here.
