The welcome at St Andrews was not quite as grandiose as it normally is for some of the hopeful professionals qualifying for the mother of all Opens. Many of the tour pros have played here in the Dunhill Cup frequently over the years. The red carpet is rolled out for them on those occasions: first class flights, courtesy cars, suites in the Old Course Hotel and cashmere sweaters are all provided for the team challenge in October.
British Open Qualifying does not lavish such excesses on their competitors. Greg Turner and I found ourselves roaming around Murray Place (the Bed and Breakfast road of St Andrews) in search of digs last Saturday night. We found suitable lodgings for a couple of nights; not quite the Old Course hotel though. There is an element of Fate-tempting by staying at the venue when you have yet to qualify. Some may be inspired by the surroundings of the old town and spurred on to better golf in the qualifying as a result. Others may get ahead of themselves and forget about the task at hand.
In fact many non-exempt players rent houses in anticipation of qualifying. Of course missing out results in a huge expense. Believe me, no professional wants to hang around if they are not playing. The fact is that golfers, accustomed to more exclusive surroundings during their normal tour scene, will sacrifice some comforts for the joy of playing in the Open. Despite upsetting the tour routine everyone who has an interest in golf wants desperately to be included in this event. So despite seeing some golfers skulking out of accommodations normally reserved for the caddie, it shows a sign of true golfing spirit.
Greg and I wandered down the first fairway at Scotscraig golf course in the town of Tayport some ten miles north of St Andrews last Sunday for our first of two qualifying rounds. We were paired with Colin Gillies, a local who plays the "Tartan Tour" for his living. Duffy Waldorf made up the threeball. He values the experience of the Open challenge enough to warrant the long haul from Los Angeles in order to get one of the ten or so spots out of 120 starters at each of the four qualifying courses.
Again, the break of routine for a relatively established American pro, says something about the importance of this event to serious golfers. Glen Day, another established United States contender was in the group behind us. I don't think it was Duffy's largest gathering of spectators for the year, but it was certainly the biggest showing Greg and Colin Gillies had seen so far. There was a group of 80 to 100 people marching down the fairways. Naturally the course is not roped off like in a normal tour event, so the golf enthusiast gets the rare opportunity of walking side by side with some relatively famous golfers.
What a knowledgable crowd they are too. Despite the lack of restrictions not once in the two days did anyone have to be asked to keep quiet or to move from where they were standing. When the courses are roped, caddies seem to be constantly asking for order in the crowd. Maybe it's time to let the galleries roam freely at tournaments.
Scotscraig (originally named Tayport golf club, was instituted in 1818 and "resusitated" in 1887) like most established courses does not have much of a practice facility with space for about five golfers to hit at the same time no further than 200 yards. This practice session is carried out using your own golf balls, which means the intrepid caddie is left as a human target for his golfer in the old routine of "shagging golf balls".
This means at peak times the caddie is left standing in a space no wider than an average front garden scouring the sky-line for errant practice shots heading his way from maybe five different directions. You are happy to make it to the first tee without concussion. This, in the caddie's mind is taking the romance of the Open a little too far. Thank heavens for the modern driving range.
Those with afternoon tee times could take advantage of the ultra modern driving range in the Scottish National Golf Centre situated a couple of miles down the road at Drumoig. This advanced practice facility was opened a year ago with everything on offer to the modern golfer from indoor pitching and bunker areas to the A-STAR video swing analysis system.
All this is in stark contrast to the humps and hollows down the road at the Old Course and its accompanying history.
The Turner team's efforts were in vain. Which left him with the biggest week of a player's year off, resigned to watching the event like most other golf enthusiast, on TV.
Caddies, on the other hand are flexible and instantly transferable. So I am planning to spend today "on the spit" (caddie term for the unemployed but hopeful) in the carpark outside the R and A building in search for the extremely rare case these days, a player without a caddie. No one wants to sit this one out.
