The 150th Open Championship begins tomorrow. Naturally it’s at St Andrews (above), the home of golf.
As some readers will know, I went to secondary school in St Andrews, from 1970 to 1976.
We lived twelve miles away and every day I’d catch the school bus, an old double-decker, for the 35-minute journey. (It’s much quicker by car, obviously.)
In those days Madras College, which was founded in 1833, was split into two sites. All first and second years went to the Kilrymont Road campus which was in the middle of a large residential estate a mile and a half from the South Street site that was in the centre of town.
We were put in classes based on academic criteria and at the end of year 2 (when I was 13) we were segregated for a second time.
The more academic ones went to the South Street site where we stayed for three or four years until we left school at 16 or 17 while the less academic pupils remained at Kilrymont, some leaving school at 15, others switching to South Street for their final year.
It was quite harsh on pupils who may have been late developers academically and I remember that one friend challenged the decision not to send him to South Street after Y2.
He won and although he didn’t go to university (no bad thing in my opinion) he went on to enjoy a very successful career as an accountant running his own business.
I wasn’t aware of it at the time but the Kilrymont campus had only opened in 1967, just three years before I went there.
A modern, typically Sixties building, it must have been pretty state of the art at the time.
(The school in Gregory’s Girl has echoes of Kilrymont which is one reason why that film continues to resonate with me all these years later.)
Facilities included a separate sports hall (where we played badminton, 5-a-side football and basketball), outside tennis courts, a large playground at the front of the building and a huge playing field at the rear.
You can see an aerial picture of the Kilrymont site here. The school buses used to park at the front on the left and when the bell went at 4.00pm there was a mad dash to be one of the first on the bus.
What the Kilrymont site lacked was character and history and the Category A listed South Street building had that in spades which is why many of us were so keen to go there.
Set back from one of the three main streets that run parallel to each other in the centre of St Andrews (the others being Market Street and North Street), the original stone building featured a small but impressive quad and around the quad were old classrooms with thick wooden doors and high ceilings.
In the Fifties and Sixties the South Street campus was extended with an assembly hall, dining room and four-storey classroom block built on land at the back of the school.
Needless to say the original South Street building (now almost 200 years old) has outlived the 55-year-old Kilrymont campus which closed earlier this year when the school relocated to a single £55 million campus on the edge of town.
Purchased by the university, it will no doubt outlast those unlovely mid 20th century extensions as well because when I last looked the four-storey classroom block was in a sorry state, which says a lot about post war buildings in Britain although they seem to have improved a bit since the Fifties and Sixties.
Anyway we enjoyed a lot more freedom at South Street where we were allowed to wander around town during our mid morning break and at lunchtime. We did this whatever the weather and even now, 50 years later, I could probably navigate the centre of St Andrews with my eyes shut.
Owing to the location of the site in the centre of town the South Street playing fields were a 15-minute walk away, close to the famous Old Course. (If you’re driving in to St Andrews on the A91 they’re on the left just before you enter the town.)
Golf however wasn’t an option. In those days the school offered cricket, hockey and rugby for the boys, hockey for the girls. (The girls must have done something other than hockey in the summer term but I’ve no idea what. Rounders, perhaps?)
Given the town’s legendary status as the home of golf it seems surprising that none of my school friends played golf but if you want to be any good it’s a time-consuming game and at that age how many people have the time?
I only knew one person at school who played golf and he was a year or two below me but he was responsible for my first and only round of golf.
We were in a school play together and he suggested we have a round of golf on the Eden Course that is adjacent to the Old Course.
I hit my first ball off the tee with the heel of my (borrowed) club and it shot off at 90 degrees narrowly missing an elderly golfer on a nearby practice green.
After being declared out of bounds I scuffed my second attempt at a tee shot and the ball limped forward and came to rest about 20 yards in front of me. (I will never forget the disgusted look on my playing partner’s face. Perhaps I had exaggerated my ability.)
Having struggled to the first green I eventually holed out in 14 strokes after multiple putts but I got better as the round went on so I wasn’t humiliated. If I remember correctly I even made par on a couple of holes. I never played golf again though.
Worse, I’ve never attended a single Open at St Andrews.
When we lived in Scotland there were two Opens at St Andrews, one in 1970, the other in 1978. They were both won by the great Jack Nicklaus (who is in St Andrews this week) but somehow it never occurred to me, my friends or my family to attend the event in person.
It was on TV and that was enough.
Since then, although I visit St Andrews several times a year (more when we lived in Edinburgh in the Nineties), I still haven’t been to an Open in St Andrews or anywhere else.
Why? Well, St Andrews is a small town with a limited number of hotels and guest houses, many of which are booked years in advance of the Open.
Hundreds of local residents reputedly rent out their flats and houses for the week while they go off on holiday or stay with friends but the sort of prices they charge are way beyond what I would pay.
In February we stayed in a self-catering flat in the centre of St Andrews, five minutes’ walk from the 18th green, and three nights weren’t cheap so I can’t imagine what the same property would cost during the Open.
The problem is, if you stay outside St Andrews during the Open - in Dundee, for example, where there is also limited hotel accommodation - there are only a handful of roads (and only one main road) into the town so traffic congestion can be a major issue.
Then there’s the course itself.
St Andrews is the spiritual home of golf and a large part of its reputation - like that of other links courses - is due to the fact that, broadly speaking, it’s based on the natural contours of the land and is not man-made.
The Old Course is notoriously flat which can be an issue if you want to follow players on foot or watch the golf at ground level.
With hundreds if not thousands of people around you, I understand that many spectators can’t see very much because apart from the temporary stands the course doesn’t have the raised vantage points that are built in to many ‘designed’ courses.
These are just some of the excuses I’ve come up with for not going to the Open in St Andrews.
For a time I even convinced myself there was nothing special about a St Andrews Open Championship because it’s on the rota more than any other venue - too often, in my view.
That eight year gap in the Seventies was the longest there has ever been between Opens at St Andrews which easily holds the record for hosting the event - 29 times compared to Prestwick’s 24, and Prestwick last hosted the Open in 1925!
As a result I do think St Andrews has lost a little of its mystique and attraction as an Open venue.
Nevertheless, I can’t imagine many better places to be during Open week, especially if you’re staying in the heart of the town and can walk to the course.
The atmosphere in the pubs and restaurants must be fantastic and as long as no-one is hollering “Get in the hole!” (a capital offence as far as I’m concerned) I can definitely see the appeal.
So I’ve decided to add the Open at St Andrews to my bucket list.
It’s too late for this year but I believe the Championship will return to the town in 2027 which gives me five years to save up and find somewhere to stay that won’t involve remortgaging my house.
Update: An old schoolfriend tells me that Madras did have a golf team (which his brother captained once) but it wasn't widely advertised. How bizarre.
Update: The BBC reports that student tenants are being asked to move out of their rented accommodation for the week of the Open so landlords can accommodate visitors:
The historic golf championship could see about 300,000 people visit the town which normally has a population of 19,000.
As a result, accommodation in the area is currently fetching up to £1,000 a night.
Below: Yours truly, with the Old Course, 18th hole, behind me in February 2022. I believe it will be warmer this week.
