Finally, back online - Now, for the final day at The Open....

We stayed in Edinburgh on Saturday night, so Sunday morning we got up at about 6:00am to get ready and catch a 7:30am train to St. Andrews, about an hour and a half train/bus ride away. It was the final day at The Open and my last time at the Old Course for this go around, at least. This day was not going to be about the golf as much as it was going to be about the last day of experiencing the magical quality of the Old Course. And remember what I said about no cameras on course during the competition? Well, whatever.........................
.
Here is the picture story of our final day of the Open Championship at the Old Course in St. Andrews.........


We got to the course at about 9:00am and started out by just getting ourselves arranged for the day as most of the early tee times didn't interest me. Here we are just after arriving, standing along the 18th fairway. In the background, right between us, you can see the Swilcan Bridge (more on that later) and behind that is The Old Course Hotel, which runs along the 17th fairway and is where many of the golfers (including Tiger this year) stay for the week.





After walking with John Daly for a couple of holes (and seeing him birdie the 2nd - I'm telling you, he should hire me. He's a birdie machine when I'm watching.), we decided to plant ourselves in the grandstand in front of the 7th/11th green (7 different greens at the Old Course are double greens with 2 holes on them) which is at the farthest corner of the course. From here you can not only see players playing the 7th and 11th holes but you also have a look at the 8th and 10th holes along with the 12th tee off. We stayed there for about 4 hours watching all of the groups go around the outer loop (7,8,9,10 and 11). This picture is Phil Mickelson just hitting his putt on the par 3 11th hole.

An interesting thing is that the 7th and 11th fairways cross right in front of the 7th/11th green and go to opposite sides of the double green. And right in front of the green is Hell's Bunker, probably the most famous, and by far the largest, pot bunker on the Old Course. So it comes into play on both the 7th and 11th holes. Here is a picture of Tiger and caddy, Stevie Williams, getting ready to line up Tiger's putt on the 11th hole. But prior to this, Tiger managed to hit his drive on number 7 into Hell's Bunker (he hit it too far and straight) which required him to hit backwards out of the bunker, resulting in a double-bogey on the hole.

After 4 hours on the outer loop we went back in to the 18th fairway to watch players play their finishing hole. Here is Tiger crossing the Swilcan Bridge on his 72nd hole of the tournament. Crossing this bridge on the last day is sort of the unofficial goodbye to all of the fans at The Open. (Again, more on the Swilcan Bridge to come....)

As the last few groups were coming in and the winner was no longer in doubt, we went to the grandstand along the 1st fairway, which runs adjacent to the 18th fairway. This is actually a wide shot of the scene at the 18th green as the final pairing of the day is on the green finishing out the final hole of The Open. From the left you see the Royal and Ancient Clubhouse, the 18th green grandstand (which costs some serious money to sit in) with the main scoreboard in the middle, the Scores Hotel behind the grandstand, and then, around the corner, all of the people lining the 18th fairway along the road with golf shops (Tom Morris Golf Shop is the best), hotels (The Russacks is the most famous), and pubs looking right out over the fairway as the golfers come to the finish.

And now for the unexpected and amazing finish as The Open ended. Here I am in the pot bunker in front of the 17th green. You can see how the front wall can make you hit sideways or backwards to get out of it. I never did get out and ended up having to take an X on the hole.........

.....and here I am kneeling in front of the hole on the 17th green. If you watched The Open you probably saw golfers putting from as far as 40 yards away from some of the greens. I went to the edge of the 17th green and I almost could not tell where the fairway ended and the green began. The fairways are so short and manicured so perfectly that they have a better and smoother and faster surface than almost any green that I have ever putted. The greens and the fairways both are lightning fast with many rolling undulations. No wonder it is treacherous putting on this course.........

.....and here we are on the 17th green, with the scene of the 18th green in our distant background, getting ready to finally leave the course........

....and finally, here I am on the Swilcan Bridge saying goodbye to St. Andrews after an amazing and wonderous experience.

.

.

Farewell, Old Course. See you again in 2015................

.

.

.

.

.

.

So that wraps up our time at The Open Championship on The Old Course, St. Andrews, Scotland. It was the perfect cap to an absolutely extraordinary experience, one that I never dreamed could exceed my expectations by as much as it did. Can you ever imagine this kind of experience with this kind of access at a major venue in the United States? Never in a million years. It was truly among the most amazing experiences of my life.

.

So now it is back to Edinburgh for a bit and then on to London for a bit before heading on to Sweden. We will make up for lost time by combining days in the upcoming blogs. Hopefully we will continue to have great Internet access for the remaining days.