UHND.com - Notre Dame Football, Basketball, & Recruiting

gave you your well deserved applause.

If you don't mind, I'll share my own experience at St. Andrews (et al)...alas, no 1 footer for birdie on 18...

Late summer of 1984...I have a business trip to the hinterlands of Finland (Nuke Plant), but also have several weeks of vacation time saved up, so...I 'schlep' my golf clubs for use on the return home...(I made quite the sight for the Finns...no golf w/in hundreds of kilometers ;-))...fly to London, then Edinburgh...immediately rent a car and hot foot it to 'Muirfield' and figuratively (literally?) beg for a tee time...it worked! (another story)...hop in the car after the round and head straight for St. Andrews...have reservation at Rusacks Hotel, right by the 18th green...told to show up on the first tee early for a 'Walk On' opportunity...get there around 7:00am...the senior caddy (70-80 yrs old) asks my handicap...I show him my NCGA card (7) and he takes my bag...says the two of us can go right away...someone will come on a bike to collect the green fee (happened around the 3rd hole)...after just a couple of holes he has me 'sized up' and says '"just hit it where I tell you"...so somehow I do on nearly all my shots...end up with a 76...wish I could remember that caddy's name...God bless him.

I don't remember taking a noticeable divot from any fairway, nor leaving a ball mark on a green...it's an entirely different experience to play there...the bunkers are truly penal, as is the "Gorse" (even more so) that can get you if you don't hit it where your caddie tells you to...(advice...always take a caddie at St. Andrews).

This is going to be a fun tournament to watch...