Copyright scotsman
The Old Course at St Andrews, golf’s most-treasured masterpiece, is set to undergo significant surgery this winter after a list of tweaks for The 155th Open in 2027 were added to an already-announced irrigation project that will see a total of 1,500 new sprinklers being installed. “There’s a lot of work, so it is going to be a busy winter for us but an exciting one, too,” Sandy Reid, the director of greenkeeping at St Andrews Links Trust, admitted to The Scotsman in a briefing about the Old Course changes, which, due to its historic standing in the game, will be widely scrutinised around the world. In what is being described as a “carefully-planned programme of enhancements and restoration”, six holes are being lengthened through either new championship tees being created or existing ones being enlarged while one hole - the 12th - is being reduced slightly in length by the tee there being realigned to alleviate a “spectator pinchpoint” out on The Loop. The combined result will see the overall championship yardage increase by 132 yards to 7,445 yards while the work will also include the restoration of an “historic playing route” at the 16th, as well as “sympathetic” attention to reduce the effect of sand splash build up at the infamous Road Hole bunker. “We believe this work is important in ensuring the Old Course continues to evolve and challenge the world’s best golfers in the years to come while enhancing the experience of local and visiting golfers,” said Mark Darbon, The R&A’s chief executive, while Neil Coulson, his counterpart on the St Andrews Links Trust, expressed excitement about how the “work will restore features that have changed subtly over time and refine others to preserve the course’s unique character”. The work, which will be carried out by leading links golf specialists Mackenzie & Ebert, comes a decade after “significant adjustments” were undertaken in advance of the 2015 Open, but, after the Old Course held up pretty well in the 150th edition of the world’s oldest major in 2022, ‘why now?’ for more changes is a question likely to be asked by many. “Yeah, look, when we concluded The Open in 2022, which was a great success and the course played very well, we felt it would be appropriate for The R&A and St Andrews Links Trust to undertake a review of the course based on some of the newer developments we’d seen occurring during the championship with more of the par 4s being drivable and both par 5s being reachable on the same day in those weather conditions,” said Grant Moir, The R&A’s executive director of governance. “So we felt it was appropriate to have a look at the course and evaluate the strategic challenge it was presenting for elite players, which is The R&A’s focus in this instance. “We felt it was an appropriate time to make a few changes to adapt and enhance the strategic challenge for the elite players but also an opportunity for some restoration of features that had maybe been lost over the years. Knowing there are understandable sensitivities around making changes to the Old Course, we took our time in those discussion and we have alighted on these relatively moderate but, we think, significant changes to the course that will help restore some of the challenge to certain holes in advance of us returning for The 155th Open in 2027.” It had been widely predicted that Bryson DeChambeau, one of the game’s biggest hitters, would break 60 in The Open in 2022, yet his best score that week was 66 while the lowest score was 64 as Australian Cameron Smith, who signed for that score in both the second round and the closing circuit, posted a total of 20 under par as he claimed the Claret Jug. “We were very pleased with how the course held up,” added Moir, “but we are not necessarily looking at the individual scores and or the totals. It’s the way each hole plays strategically, that’s more of a focus for us and I think we felt there were certain holes - the seventh and the tenth, for example - where for those holes to be driveable other than in really strong downwind conditions was a new aspect we felt was something we wanted to address and we certainly wanted to restore the challenge on certain holes where clearly the way modern players are playing had perhaps been lost.” The holes being lengthened are the fifth, sixth, seventh, tenth, 11th and 16th, where one of the “most significant areas of work” will be undertaken as a playing route from yesteryear is restored to the left of the Principal’s Nose and Deacon Sime bunkers along with the addition of two bunkers. In addition, the main daily play tee on the par-5 14th will be “re-positioned slightly”. “Very comfortable,” declared Reid of the overall changes. “We see how the course is played day-to-day through the volume of golf we have here and we are conscious of the history. A good few of the changes are around restoration but, at the same time, enhancing the everyday playing experience. We are creating more tight turf and these changes help us to do that. We know that people will have opinions about it, but we see it as an enhancement to the course. It has always changed over a couple hundred years and these, whilst noticeable, are fairly moderate in the grand scheme of things.” Of all the changes, it will be the work on the 16th that will be of particular interest to the world’s top players when the Old Course stages The Open for the 31st time in 2027. “Yeah, that’s been our feeling,” said Moir in reply to being asked if the rough on the left there had become a bail-out area. “It sounds counterintuitive that to enhance the challenge you take away rough and replace it with fairway but what we felt that, for all golfers, is that it creates optionality and more interest by extending the fairway out there. The Old Course has always been about options and ways of attacking the green depending on where the hole location is. And to restore that interest and, if you like, strategic diversity of the hole, I think this change is really exciting.” 5th hole A new championship tee will add 35 yards to the hole, one of just two par 5s on the course, to 605 yards. With an average score of 4.598 and yielding 14 eagles and 211 birdies, it was ranked as the third-easiest hole in The Open in 2022. 6th hole It is being stretched by 17 yards, taking it to 431 yards, by the creation of a new tee. This hole was ranked ninth in the last Open with an average score of 4.025, which included eight double bogeys and one bigger disaster. 7th hole The hole with Shell Bunker, one of the most famous bunkers on the course, will become a 393-yard par 4 through the addition of 22 yards. It played at 3.897 in 2022 after giving up just under 100 birdies. 10th hole Through the last of the new championship tees, an extra 29 yards is being added here, taking the total yardage to 415 yards. It gave up two eagle-2s in the most recent Claret Jug event while there were no double bogeys or worse. 11th hole On a hole where the green is guarded on the front left by the big Strath Bunker, the existing championship tee is being enlarged to extend the par 3 from 174 yards to 195 yards. Only 30 birdies were made here over the four rounds in 2022 as it ranked as the fourth toughest hole at 3.224. 12th hole Aimed specifically at trying to “help ease championship spectator movement in this location” on the course, the tee is being realigned and will result in it being reduced in length by two yards as it drops from 351 yards to 349 yards. Four eagles were made here in 2022. 16th hole The biggest work will be undertaken here as an enlargement of the existing tee allows ten yards to be added, taking it to 428 yards. In addition, a decision has been taken to restore an historic playing route to the left of the Principal’s Nose and Deacon Sime bunkers along with the addition of two bunkers to add risk on the left hand side of the extended fairway. 17th hole In what was described by Sandy Reid, the director of greenkeeping at St Andrews Links Trust, as a “simple stuff and routine”, the Road Hole being is being “sympathetically restored” to reduce the effect of sand splash build-up over time.
