One American's winter experience in St. Andrews

TL;DR: trip of a lifetime and I lucked out overall on the weather!

Just wrapped up by first trip to the Home of golf. What an incredible experience! It really felt like I was in someone else's dream the entire time. It was surreal.

My buddy and I had the privilege of buying their winter package. We got the email in July. It's three straight days of golf, which includes the Old course. I don't know if the courses are always the same, but our three were New, Jubilee, and Old in that order. I'd be happy to answer any questions about the particulars of booking everything else about the trip independently, but don't want to take up the post with superfluous information.

Due to circumstances beyond my friend's control, he couldn't make it unfortunately. But I of course went. The first day of golf, I received an unfortunate email that the greenskeepers had deemed the previous week's frost still lingering too much, so all courses were closed. I called the reservations people and had them cancel my Jubilee tee time for day # two, and replace it with the New course, which they were able to accommodate. The Old course tee time was unaffected. So it only ended up being two days of golf. I'm only like 80% bummed about that, because it gave us time to explore the rest of St Andrews.

My performance on the New course was pretty bad overall. Probably mostly nerves for the first half, then not having ever played under links conditions with 20 mph sustained winds. But it was sunny, and relatively warm for the season, so I can't complain. I did get a caddy both days, which was definitely a godsend the first time you play there, and would highly recommend it.

I ended up having the entire tee time to myself for the Old course. That was kind of surreal. There was a foursome in front of me and a foursome behind me. But everyone seemed to be playing at a good speed, and I was able to take my time, looking around and taking in the sights, and getting into plenty of trouble off the tee that I had to linger a little longer to look for my ball lol. I scored a 90, which is about 3 to 5 strokes higher than my average. I'm a 14 handicap for reference. I did have six pars though! Including #1 and #18. But that rough can really screw you up off the tee, so my card was plagued with doubles and a triple. Best shot of the day was the tee shot on 17, freaking piped it directly over the corner of the hotel and landed center fairway. Conditions on that day were sunny, windy, and around 50° F. Not too bad at all.

The pies at the turn were great.

And Americans should open their hearts to HP sauce; it's delicious and versatile.