Day 29 - St. Andrew’s: The Open

First off, I cannot believe we are beginning week 5! Wow

Secondly, I spent the day in St Andrew’s at the 150th Open Championship.

The R&A has sent out about 50 emails about the unreliability of the trains from Edinburgh to Leuchars, the nearest station to the Open. Apparently there is a slow down in service as the workers want more money. But the train takes an hour and a bus takes 2 hours. So, I checked the schedule 1,000 times and decided to go for it. I was determined to get up early and get on the train. The alarm goes off at 5:10 and I’m out the door in 10 minutes for the 6:00 am train. It is pretty magical to walk across Edinburgh early in the morning when it’s quiet and no one is around. To get to Waverly station, I had to descend Advocate’s Close; which means to return I had to ascend Advocate’s Close. SIGH

Contrary to the R&A emails, the trains were running as scheduled and there was a local bus to and from the tournament. Super simple!

I will admit that my purpose in attending the tournament was more about seeing the venue, soaking up the vibe, grabbing some merch, and just enjoying being in an iconic golf location. I didn’t really care about watching practice. If you’ve ever attended a practice round, you know what I’m talking about. It is a beating. The golfers hit 3-4 balls from all around the green, they putt from wherever, the hit multiple drives. It’s not so much golf as really watching them prepare and process the course. Also, while some tee times are posted, some are not. I did hear a guy tell his friend that someone was taking a penalty shot on a missed drive. Since I hadn’t had a beer yet, I completely let that sh&^ go because it’s a practice round.

I was determined to see the the course, which is straight out to the Eden Estuary and then back to the town of St. Andrew’s. The views from the 18th fairway into the green with the town as the backdrop are freaking iconic. Just beautiful.

I did run into the guy who is in charge of keeping the Rolex signs clean. Did you know there was a guy in charge of that particular duty??? Actually, there’s probably more than one guy, 😂😂😂😂😂

I went to the grandstands on 18 to get the view the patrons will have on Sunday afternoon and who did I run into, the GOAT 🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐chipping and checking out the roll of the greens. I could watch this for a while. And I also got a few pics of Adrian Meronk, who played the back 9 with Tiger. Check out the story: https://www.golfchannel.com/news/2022-british-open-adrian-meronk-gets-thrill-lifetime-playing-nine-holes-tiger-woods-tuesday?utm-tags=golf1304000&mi_u=62BB57E1-64D5-4D62-8039-FD80C0295322&slug=news%2F2022-british-open-adrian-meronk-gets-thrill-lifetime-playing-nine-holes-tiger-woods-tuesday

Also, if you haven’t seen Max Homa’s tweet about being in Tiger’s threesome…

Cathy Tompkins and Mike Thompson told me I HAD to go to The Dunvegan in St. Andrew’s; so I did. Very cool and met English, Canadian, and The Woodlands golfers. Also, I swiped the cups, Margie. They are plastic, but excellent nonetheless.

And once I made it back to Edinburgh, I met Martha at Sandy Bells, which is a well known Folk Music pub and had a pint.

I did catch a few views of the Firth of Forth on the train on the way to and from the tournament.