The 150th Open at St Andrews

[scott_Donald]

Well I own a property in the centre of St Andrews and the price was stupid for The Open 10 days; we finally got a provisional booking last night for it(fingers crossed it held) Wednesday to checkout Sunday. As a property owner it is like a bonus money over the normal rates for the property.

 

I am heading down this Sunday for the day and really looking forward to wondering around town, I just love the St Andrews atmosphere and it seems to be building up to The Open big time now!

 

It was matts for a long time this year on the course and the weather has been so dry and windy on the East coast that the courses are getting fast and rock hard already. Interesting to see how it plays in July. My home course RAGC they have been using wetting agents and sprinklers on the fairways already but the course is in amazing condition!

 

I have a parking permit attached to my car, we were joking I wonder how much I would get for it as a lease for the week as you can park right in the centre, 3 minute Old Course walk, or 1 minute Market Street walk!

 

If I could get a practice round ticket for the Monday or Tuesday then I would certainly head down but rather watch the full thing(Thursday to Sunday) on the TV.

Edited June 13, 2022 by scott_Donald

[philsRHman]

10 hours ago, scott_Donald said:

Well I own a property in the centre of St Andrews and the price was stupid for The Open 10 days; we finally got a provisional booking last night for it(fingers crossed it held) Wednesday to checkout Sunday. As a property owner it is like a bonus money over the normal rates for the property.

 

I am heading down this Sunday for the day and really looking forward to wondering around town, I just love the St Andrews atmosphere and it seems to be building up to The Open big time now!

 

It was matts for a long time this year on the course and the weather has been so dry and windy on the East coast that the courses are getting fast and rock hard already. Interesting to see how it plays in July. My home course RAGC they have been using wetting agents and sprinklers on the fairways already but the course is in amazing condition!

 

I have a parking permit attached to my car, we were joking I wonder how much I would get for it as a lease for the week as you can park right in the centre, 3 minute Old Course walk, or 1 minute Market Street walk!

 

If I could get a practice round ticket for the Monday or Tuesday then I would certainly head down but rather watch the full thing(Thursday to Sunday) on the TV.

Having followed the Dunhill down the stretch last year — with a much, much smaller crowd than you’ll have at the Open — I can’t imagine it would make for great spectating, compared to TV. I guess it would be fun to follow a group around but not sure you could even see much as it seems you’d be restricted to the perimeter of the property. Would be fantastic to be in town for the buzz, however!

[tad950]

Edit to my previous post. There are no tee times on Saturday until after The Open Championship. In addition to the usual Sunday closing. There foursomes coming down 18 at 9:45 pm. today.

 

On a completely different note, we saw Gary Player in town yesterday. Apparently he had just watched the new Top Gun movie. Very personable. 
 

ANOTHER EDIT. The Old Course will close down completely after June 17th.

 

Edited June 14, 2022 by tad950

[MJD80]

Can't wait to get over there. We are staying in the uni dorms and have a few games lined up at Crail & Lundin.

I have a few spare tickets for the Tuesday practice round, if anyone wants one shoot me a DM. 

[scott_Donald]

1 hour ago, MJD80 said:

Can't wait to get over there. We are staying in the uni dorms and have a few games lined up at Crail & Lundin.

I have a few spare tickets for the Tuesday practice round, if anyone wants one shoot me a DM. 

 

tempting!

[scott_Donald]

I was down for the day today, everything is shaping up nicely. The course is closed and now they just need  the rough to grow and do lots of tidying up!

 

 

Edited June 20, 2022 by scott_Donald

[MattyO1984]

Now that the US Open is out the way, definitely feels like the countdown to The Open is on!! Can hardly wait to get down there on 10th, 11th and 15th July 🙂

[cardia10]

Has anyone recently returned from a trip back to the US and wants to give lots of insight? Headed out in a few weeks and love to hear about it!

[tad950]

6 hours ago, cardia10 said:

Has anyone recently returned from a trip back to the US and wants to give lots of insight? Headed out in a few weeks and love to hear about it!

The only suggestions I have are airline related. Expect flight delays. Anywhere from 1 1/2 hours to slightly less than 4 hours. Allow plenty of time for connecting flights. Security and Customs lines can be unusually long, depending on your timing.

 

Don’t try to change flights to an earlier or later flight mid journey. That would pretty much guarantee that your luggage will be lost. According to a BBC news broadcast that I watched  when I was in Scotland, the UK is short 30,000 airline/airport employees. And there is an average of 4000 lost pieces of luggage a day in the UK. In the old days, your luggage would usually show up the next morning or afternoon. Not anymore. Expect to wait 4 or 5 days, or longer. One of the guys In our group actually went down to the off airport storage facility in Edinburgh to look for his clubs himself. He finally found them on his second attempt. 
 

I can’t really comment on restaurant service. In Edinburgh, we were mostly doing fish and chips, pizza, and pub food. In St. Andrews, it was graduation week, so all the better restaurants were slammed. 
 

it was my first visit to the East Lothian area. Played Craigielaw, Dunbar, Renaissance, Muirfield, West Links, and Gullane.#1. Plenty of other choices, but time would not allow. Other than the occasional heavy wind, rain and hail, I was very impressed with the area. But it’s Scotland, what area doesn’t have great golf.

 

p.s. If you aren’t in business class, expect to wait an hour for your luggage to show up on the carousel 😄 at EDI. 

Edited June 24, 2022 by tad950

[imkirby34]

6 hours ago, cardia10 said:

Has anyone recently returned from a trip back to the US and wants to give lots of insight? Headed out in a few weeks and love to hear about it!

 

I got back from Scotland last week after having played the Old Course on the 14th, along with 5 other courses over 7 days.  I don't know what else I can add that scott_Donald hasn't already, particularly since he has the local knowledge.

 

If you're more interested in the air travel part of it, I don't think it would come as any surprise that the check-in and security checkpoints at EDI and LHR were VERY backed up.  I had originally booked the flights (British Airways) last September and 3 of the 4 changed at least once.  Our group had 41 people in total and all came from different parts of Northern California.  I think most used either British Airways or Air Canada.  Delayed or canceled flights and delayed luggage were issues for most of the group.  On the good side, the COVID test requirement was rescinded while were there, so we did not have to get tested before coming back.

 

St. Andrews, itself, was busy already when we there because of graduation - lots of families in town.  As someone mentioned, Gary Player was there and as I posted in the "Personal Course Pictures" thread, we were fortunate to get to talk to him and take a picture as we walked off the 18th green.  

[hammergolf]

4 hours ago, tad950 said:

The only suggestions I have are airline related. Expect flight delays. Anywhere from 1 1/2 hours to slightly less than 4 hours. Allow plenty of time for connecting flights. Security and Customs lines can be unusually long, depending on your timing.

 

Don’t try to change flights to an earlier or later flight mid journey. That would pretty much guarantee that your luggage will be lost. According to a BBC news broadcast that I watched  when I was in Scotland, the UK is short 30,000 airline/airport employees. And there is an average of 4000 lost pieces of luggage a day in the UK. In the old days, your luggage would usually show up the next morning or afternoon. Not anymore. Expect to wait 4 or 5 days, or longer. One of the guys In our group actually went down to the off airport storage facility in Edinburgh to look for his clubs himself. He finally found them on his second attempt. 
 

I can’t really comment on restaurant service. In Edinburgh, we were mostly doing fish and chips, pizza, and pub food. In St. Andrews, it was graduation week, so all the better restaurants were slammed. 
 

it was my first visit to the East Lothian area. Played Craigielaw, Dunbar, Renaissance, Muirfield, West Links, and Gullane.#1. Plenty of other choices, but time would not allow. Other than the occasional heavy wind, rain and hail, I was very impressed with the area. But it’s Scotland, what area doesn’t have great golf.

 

p.s. If you aren’t in business class, expect to wait an hour for your luggage to show up on the carousel 😄 at EDI. 

Man, didn’t know that flights and luggage are that bad. Going to keep an eye on it now since I’m 90 days out till I’m going to Ireland. May have to look into using Shipsticks…

[imkirby34]

7 minutes ago, hammergolf said:

Man, didn’t know that flights and luggage are that bad. Going to keep an eye on it now since I’m 90 days out till I’m going to Ireland. May have to look into using Shipsticks…

 

At least one of the people from our group trip to Scotland had their golf bag returned to the hotel by Shipsticks after it was screened at the airport because they had left aerosol sunscreen packed in the bag.  Another person had their golf bag brought back for the same reason, but it wasn't clear if they also used Shipsticks - the person mentioned only that DHL returned their bag to the hotel.  I was under the impression that person did not use Shipsticks because they mentioned having to pay an extra fee, while the other person did not.

 

I guess Shipsticks does list any aerosol as a generally prohibited item, so it's possible YMMV.  <shrug>  The Experience St. Andrews had recommended using "Luggage Forward".  Admittedly, I didn't look into it, so I can't speak to the price of their service versus Shipsticks.

[hammergolf]

15 minutes ago, imkirby34 said:

 

At least one of the people from our group trip to Scotland had their golf bag returned to the hotel by Shipsticks after it was screened at the airport because they had left aerosol sunscreen packed in the bag.  Another person had their golf bag brought back for the same reason, but it wasn't clear if they also used Shipsticks - the person mentioned only that DHL returned their bag to the hotel.  I was under the impression that person did not use Shipsticks because they mentioned having to pay an extra fee, while the other person did not.

 

I guess Shipsticks does list any aerosol as a generally prohibited item, so it's possible YMMV.  <shrug>  The Experience St. Andrews had recommended using "Luggage Forward".  Admittedly, I didn't look into it, so I can't speak to the price of their service versus Shipsticks.

I’m flying direct from Chicago to Dublin so hopefully that will help. Last year we didn’t have any luggage issues with our group since it was a direct flight too. Although I’ve always heard that if you connect through London on your way to Scotland it was 50/50 that your golf bag would arrive in Scotland with you. And this was before the issues now. 

[tad950]

12 hours ago, cardia10 said:

Has anyone recently returned from a trip back to the US and wants to give lots of insight? Headed out in a few weeks and love to hear about it!

 

1 hour ago, hammergolf said:

Man, didn’t know that flights and luggage are that bad. Going to keep an eye on it now since I’m 90 days out till I’m going to Ireland. May have to look into using Shipsticks…

Maybe this is currently rock bottom for the airlines, and staffing issues will be resolved going forward.

[cardia10]

I have some connections along the way (4-8 hour layovers) so I’m hoping that will help. Final leg is Toronto to Edinburgh. 

[scott_Donald]

UK airports.

 

I have not flown since August last year but from what I can gather it seems very hit or miss. Scheduled flights are far better than the cheaper(supposedly) airlines. I have had friends who have been hassle free and friends who had no luggage.

 

The problems come from staff being made redundant during Covid and now they need them back but in order to get clearance for airport works it takes far longer than normal work places!

[tlknight]

18 hours ago, tad950 said:

The only suggestions I have are airline related. Expect flight delays. Anywhere from 1 1/2 hours to slightly less than 4 hours. Allow plenty of time for connecting flights. Security and Customs lines can be unusually long, depending on your timing.

 

Don’t try to change flights to an earlier or later flight mid journey. That would pretty much guarantee that your luggage will be lost. According to a BBC news broadcast that I watched  when I was in Scotland, the UK is short 30,000 airline/airport employees. And there is an average of 4000 lost pieces of luggage a day in the UK. In the old days, your luggage would usually show up the next morning or afternoon. Not anymore. Expect to wait 4 or 5 days, or longer. One of the guys In our group actually went down to the off airport storage facility in Edinburgh to look for his clubs himself. He finally found them on his second attempt. 
 

I can’t really comment on restaurant service. In Edinburgh, we were mostly doing fish and chips, pizza, and pub food. In St. Andrews, it was graduation week, so all the better restaurants were slammed. 
 

it was my first visit to the East Lothian area. Played Craigielaw, Dunbar, Renaissance, Muirfield, West Links, and Gullane.#1. Plenty of other choices, but time would not allow. Other than the occasional heavy wind, rain and hail, I was very impressed with the area. But it’s Scotland, what area doesn’t have great golf.

 

p.s. If you aren’t in business class, expect to wait an hour for your luggage to show up on the carousel 😄 at EDI. 

Just returned from Edinburgh and we had the same luggage issues. One guy never received his clubs and had to play the “trip of a lifetime “ with rental clubs everyday. 
 

Airline lost one of my suitcases and my wife did the same as above, she went to the warehouse where they move lost luggage to and searched until she found it. She said there were bags as far as you could see and only one employee working at the time she was there. 

Edited June 25, 2022 by tlknight

[hammergolf]

5 hours ago, tlknight said:

Just returned from Edinburgh and we had the same luggage issues. One guy never received his clubs and had to play the “trip of a lifetime “ with rental clubs everyday. 
 

Airline lost one of my suitcases and my wife did the same as above, she went to the warehouse where they move lost luggage to and searched until she found it. She said there were bags as far as you could see and only one employee working at the time she was there. 

Man that SUCKS! Did u guys connect, or fly direct to Edinburgh?

[tlknight]

33 minutes ago, hammergolf said:

Man that SUCKS! Did u guys connect, or fly direct to Edinburgh?

DFW - Heathrow - Edinburgh 

[hammergolf]

34 minutes ago, tlknight said:

DFW - Heathrow - Edinburgh 

Yeah, I’ve heard nightmares about connecting through Heathrow with luggage. I’ve always flown direct from the US to either Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dublin, or Shannon. Have not had any issues, so hopefully fingers crossed I won’t have any in a few months.

[scott_Donald]

6 hours ago, hammergolf said:

Yeah, I’ve heard nightmares about connecting through Heathrow with luggage. I’ve always flown direct from the US to either Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dublin, or Shannon. Have not had any issues, so hopefully fingers crossed I won’t have any in a few months.

 

As more staff are passing the background check and trained it will get better.

[imkirby34]

This is going to sound petty, but one big disappointment on the return trip was that I was unable to get to World of Whiskies on the way through LHR as originally planned because we were almost jogging to make the connecting flight to SFO.  Unfortunately, if I had known that we wouldn't have to go through Security again at LHR, I would've gone to the WoW at EDI.  Oh well.  Heh.

[tad950]

On this past trip, I put Apple AirTags in my checked luggage and golf travel bag. At least I could tell if my luggage and myself were on the same continent 😄. And they would have helped greatly if I had to search through that mountain of lost luggage at the Edinburgh warehouse(s). 

[hammergolf]

3 hours ago, tad950 said:

On this past trip, I put Apple AirTags in my checked luggage and golf travel bag. At least I could tell if my luggage and myself were on the same continent 😄. And they would have helped greatly if I had to search through that mountain of lost luggage at the Edinburgh warehouse(s). 

Smart!

[nutmegchoi]

 

A little over two weeks, we are heading to Scotland!

 

The original plan was to stay in Edinburgh and commute to St. Andrews via train and bus both Saturday and Sunday.

Then a new friend we made last year invited us to stay over at his family house which's 5 minute walk to the course.

 

From Edinburgh to St. Andrews, St. Andrews to Glasgow, my caddie from last year is driving us.

 

I can't believe how lucky I am to get picked out of 1.3 million ballot and all the kindness we received to make our trip as easy as possible.

 

I'm taking all these as my 50th birthday gift from the golf god. 🙂

[rystaman]

I can't wait, it's the first Open I'll watch live and only my second golf event. Got 2x tickets for the Friday on the resale platform (missed out in original ballot).

 

Managed to scramble an AirBnB 20 mins out of Dundee so will be getting the train in.

 

Can anyone recommend any cheaper courses (£20-40) to play within an hour of Dundee on the Saturday? Whilst I'm up here I might as well, even though I haven't got accommodation yet for the Saturday night and it's a 6.5 hour drive back home.

[hammergolf]

30 minutes ago, rystaman said:

I can't wait, it's the first Open I'll watch live and only my second golf event. Got 2x tickets for the Friday on the resale platform (missed out in original ballot).

 

Managed to scramble an AirBnB 20 mins out of Dundee so will be getting the train in.

 

Can anyone recommend any cheaper courses (£20-40) to play within an hour of Dundee on the Saturday? Whilst I'm up here I might as well, even though I haven't got accommodation yet for the Saturday night and it's a 6.5 hour drive back home.

https://www.forbesofkingennie.co.uk/golf/prices-membership/

[rystaman]

On 6/29/2022 at 12:06 AM, hammergolf said:

https://www.forbesofkingennie.co.uk/golf/prices-membership/

That looks like a great shout, cheers!

[scott_Donald]

Down for the day again and just watched the helicopter film all the holes for TV. pretty cool.

 

Course got a lot of rain last night and its noticeably softer than 10 days ago.

 

 I am gong to stay down the Monday night now and now trying to figure out what to do for food!

[nutmegchoi]

I knew I was in trouble when I saw this on the open website.

 

I literally was going to eat whatever I could grab on the course and TESCO.

Then our host graciously stepped in and rescued us for the weekend.

We aren't going to go starve!!!