Qualla: Old Course at St Andrews

Old Course at St Andrews: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. In 1457, King James II of Scotland banned golf. Young men, he complained, were playing too much of it and neglecting their archery practice -- archery being rather more useful for national defence. The ban held through the reigns of James III and James IV, until James IV became a golfer himself in 1502 and quietly dropped the prohibition. The links at St Andrews, where the game had been played since the early fifteenth century, carried on regardless. Five and a half centuries later, the Old Course remains what it has always been: public land over common ground, open to anyone, shaped by wind and weather and the accumulated decisions of generations, and regarded by golfers worldwide as the place where their sport began.

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Old Course at St Andrews: How Eighteen Became the Number

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Natlaff, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Old Course did not start with eighteen holes. It started with twenty-two, played out and back along a narrow strip of linksland between the town and the sea. Golfers played the same fairways in both directions, which meant groups heading out would meet groups coming in, playi...

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Image: Natlaff | CC BY-SA 4.0

Old Course at St Andrews: Bobby Jones and the Key to the City

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Scott Cormie, CC BY-SA 2.0. Bobby Jones first played St Andrews in the 1921 Open Championship. It did not go well. On the 11th hole in the third round, he hit his ball into a bunker, took four unsuccessful swings to escape, lost his temper, and tore up his scorecard -- disqualifying himself. He was nineteen...

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Image: Scott Cormie | CC BY-SA 2.0

Old Course at St Andrews: One Hundred and Twelve Bunkers

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tim Glover, CC BY-SA 2.0. ESPN once observed that no other golf course has as many famous landmarks as St Andrews, and the observation is precise. The Old Course's 112 bunkers are not mere hazards -- they are named, storied, and in some cases notorious. The Road Hole Bunker on the 17th, a deep pot guardin...

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Image: Tim Glover | CC BY-SA 2.0

Old Course at St Andrews: Common Ground

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Son of Groucho from Scotland, CC BY 2.0. The Old Course is closed on Sundays. Not for religious observance -- though that was once the reason -- but to let the course rest. Dog walkers, families, and joggers reclaim the fairways, a weekly reminder that the Old Course is not a private club's manicured preserve but common...

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Image: Son of Groucho from Scotland | CC BY 2.0