Offers for The Open 2010
Book early for St Andrews 2010
New Brochure!
Golf Guide 2009-10
Download the 2009-10 Golf Guide to St Andrews and the Kingdom of Fife.
THE OPEN AND ST ANDREWS
The Open Championships at St Andrews are special. The setting is grand, with the ancient town's streets leading gently down to the Old Course whose start and finish is embedded and flanked by the dignified buildings of the Auld Grey Toon with the famous beach nearby. This is golf's most honoured place and it does not disappoint.
Many of the world's greatest golfers have coveted a win at this famous course and have felt unfulfilled if they did not win here: even Open winners elsewhere wish to add a St Andrews Open title to their list of accolades.
Looking back down the final fairway, the iconic Swilcan Bridge can be seen. It is now a place of pilgrimage. Pilgrims and golfers completing their round mount the little bridge with reverence, pause and share cameras, well aware that the world's greatest golfers have also stopped briefly here on their way to glory or as a last farewell before retirement from tournament play.
This famous landmark also ensures that the final moments of the St Andrews Open are pure golfing theatre - the huge crowd staged on three sides, and restrained by the bridge and burn. A play-off is also dramatically up and down these few holes. The auld Claret Jug, the trophy played for since 1872, is engraved once the last putt goes down, and is handed over in public to the winner in the same amphitheatre - and then conveyed back to the safety of the Clubhouse.
