The only place to be

About women, again

For hundreds of the world’s keenest amateur golfers there’s only one place to be in September. That’s St Andrews on Scotland’s windswept north-east coast where the Royal & Ancient’s annual three week Autumn Meeting starts on the first Monday in the month. This year members from almost thirty countries and every continent except Antarctica assembled for competitive golf, convivial dinners, other refreshments and, above all, for the renewal of friendships old and new.

For many participants the annual pilgrimage to Fife is a ritual. Attendance takes precedence over all other engagements, both business and personal. A couple of days ago I heard a member say his daughter had just got engaged and he’d warned her if she chooses this time next year for her wedding he won’t be there to walk her down the aisle.

When I arrived in St Andrews a few days ago my mind went back twelve months to the Centenary Walker Cup which was held the week before last year’s Autumn Meeting. One hundred years’ notice of this event had been available. Alas for the R&A, when the time came instead of entertaining a record number of friends from across the pond inside the refurbished Clubhouse, all that they could show their guests was a fenced off building site.

Completion of the enlarged underground locker room eventually took six months longer than planned and wasn’t finished until April this year. Staff worked valiantly to make the best of a bad job and it wasn’t their fault that the temporary marquee erected next to the 17th green to house replacement facilities didn’t feel quite the same as the Big Room. It was no surprise that a few members were heard murmuring “this would never have been allowed to happen at Augusta”. Indeed, if a government project caused such embarrassment there might be calls for a public inquiry.

On a positive note, this was my fifth visit since the Clubhouse reopened in April and the minor teething problems in the new locker rooms have largely been resolved. Most crucially the atmosphere throughout the building is as warm and friendly as ever, new staff have settled in and the improved facilities are working well.

The Meeting’s three competitions, one in each week, cater for all golfing tastes. By far the most sociable is the first week when the Calcutta Cup, a two ball alternate shot foursomes knockout, takes place on the New. Most R&A members are more familiar with this format than the average club golfer and any who aren’t quickly learn to appreciate its unique extra dimension.

This event is played under handicap, so every pair has a chance. Nevertheless, longstanding partnerships whose members are familiar with each other’s game and with the course, and who aren’t fazed by the kind of weather which sometimes prevails here in September, inevitably have an advantage over opponents who have just flown in from Los Angeles or Brisbane and are still adjusting to the time zone as well as the lower temperature.

It always attracts a large field, which means the first matches start at crack of dawn. Travelling six thousand or more miles, only to be knocked out before 9.30 on day one, is obviously pretty miserable so first round losers have the consolation of entering the Royal Sydney Plate whose early rounds are played at Kingsbarns. In addition and equally valuable, if not more so, is the fact that the Old Course is closed to visitors during the Autumn Meeting. This allows members to play plenty of friendly matches on it throughout the first week.

Work commitments mixed with two days of pleasurable post Curtis Cup golf with distinguished and agreeable Americans ready to enjoy alternate shot foursomes at Royal St George’s and Sunningdale prevented me from travelling to St Andrews in time for the Calcutta Cup. Week two of the R&A Meeting when the Queen Victoria Jubilee Vase, to give this singles knockout its rarely used full name, is played therefore assumed a greater significance.

Knowledgeable readers will have instantly deduced from its name that this competition was first held in 1887, the 50th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s accession to the throne. Among its early winners were Harry Colt in 1891 playing off 2 and again in 1893 off scratch, and Herbert Fowler in 1902 also off scratch. I wonder how much their early mastery of the Old influenced their subsequent work as golf architects.

Back then these two gentlemen travelled to St Andrews by train. Over a century later Britain’s rail system has scarcely been updated and its creaking carriages and almost non-existent wifi connections would disgrace a third world banana republic. Nevertheless the journey holds so many nostalgic memories of happy golf trips, especially after the Scottish border is reached, that in the absence of a private plane it remains my preferred method of travel.

The Vase is the only opportunity in the whole year to play consecutive singles matches on the Old Course. Its popularity has grown and this year there were 292 entrants causing some first round matches, unfortunately including mine, to be on the Jubilee. My opponent, a delightful Canadian gentleman, turned out to have been the runner up only two years ago and a former Calcutta Cup winner to boot.

I tried to avoid being intimidated by this record of success by recalling a match in the Vase against Bill Campbell, a former US Amateur Champion. Bill was one of the most respected amateurs of all time and in 1987 became only the third American to Captain of the R&A. Coupled with his two stints as USGA President this, I believe, constitutes a unique record.

He was over 70 when we met in the fourth round one year. Although well over twenty years my senior he had to give me four strokes. Overawed at being in company far above my golfing station I was soon three down but gradually fought back and a five net four on the fourteenth left the match all square.

As we walked to the fifteenth tee Bill remarked quietly “Say, Tim, you must be the Parliamentary golf champion and some”. Predictably, I promptly yanked my next drive into the face of a bunker on the left and lost on the seventeenth green, ruefully admiring Bill’s tactical and other skills.

On Monday afternoon the opening holes were played in the teeth of a very strong left to right wind and I was two down after seven holes. Thereafter it was nip and tuck and coming off the seventeenth green we were all square. Alas the wind had now shifted slightly and from the black tee I could not reach the eighteenth green in two. A five foot putt which, if sunk would have taken me down the nineteenth hole, obstinately slid past.

The resulting disappointment soon passed as I dined very well with good friends including an astonishingly sprightly eighty nine year old. Much good wine and food was provided by my host Geoffrey, who will soon celebrate 60 years of membership, and his bride Belinda. Next day the wind was even stronger and there were warnings that the Forth road bridge might be closed. I wasn’t sorry I’d opted out of the Plate.

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

It’s encouraging that Rory McIlroy well placed at the half way mark in the Irish Open and a rare joy to see magnificent Royal County Down on television. And this weekend the women are in the spotlight again after their thrilling Curtis Cup win at Sunningdale, as Europe chases a record fourth consecutive Solheim Cup win at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville.

I am off to France early tomorrow so I have to post this before the Solheim afternoon four ball matches finish, but Europe already seems to be under some pressure. More on this next Saturday maybe.

I played the RTJ course a decade or so ago while visiting Washington DC on business. My host was a lobbyist to whom I’d been introduced by a third party and I recall being impressed by the quality of the cigars he kept in his locker. We had a pleasant and relaxed chat over lunch in the luxurious clubhouse and later on the course which was in excellent condition. Our paths did not cross again and I was sad to learn later of his death on the course.

ENDS