I learned to play golf with Ed, my father. It was not unusual to find us playing on Sunday when many of my friends and extended family were in Church. Ed always maintained that inside the church was not the only place to worship and give thanks. The golf course was his Sunday chapel. Golf venues being described in terms of a religious experience is not unique to Ed. I stood on the first tee at the Old Course in the middle eighties and will never forget the emotion of standing where golfing history began and had been re visited by thousands. Rory McIlroy said “obviously it is the home of golf. It’s the spiritual home”. I think of the Old Course adventure as a pilgrimage, where a “person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about themselves, nature…or the higher order”. I think Ed would agree.
This week the 150th Open Championship is being held at the iconic St. Andrews Golf Course. The course was established in 1552 by the Fife Council for the Public. The course was originally called the “golfing grounds of St. Andrews and did not become the Old course until the New course was built in 1895. It is interesting that the original course had 22 holes until reconfigured in 1764 to the modern l8. The first Open was hosted at the Old course in l873 although it originated at Prestwick in l860 and was won by Tom Kidd. Consider that Kidd and his fellow competitors were teeing off on the first tee next to the North Sea and the Firth of Fourth when the United States Civil War was just eight years in the past. The history of this game is to be celebrated and revered.
I have played many great golf courses around the world. Each one of them provides a similar awe that I first felt at St. Andrews. Royal Dornoch in Northern Scotland is an amazing links golf course, Royal County Down and Lahinch in Ireland are unique, Lake Nona in Florida, Bandon Dunes in Oregon and Jug Mountain in McCall create indelible memories. The list could certainly go on but I want to conclude with Cypress Point on the Monterey peninsula. Cypress is an exclusive venue and only by good fortune did I get to play as a Monday Guest. The finishing holes are on the rock peninsula, buffeted by the Pacific Ocean winds and only sheltered by the few Cypress trees. Four majestic holes in a row where the ocean is a menacing presence on one or both sides of each fairway. As we golfers like to say, the golf course won the match but I get to keep the memories. I went to the Pro Shop to buy the necessary memorabilia and asked one of the members how he described the course. He responded quickly, “it is the Sistine Chapel of Golf. What could be more appropriate than a site that is comparable to the work of Michangelo.
The picture is my brother, Uncle Dick, and our golf group on the Swilcen Burn Bridge on the l8th fairway at the Old Course many years ago. The bridge was built in 1253 to allow the grazing sheep to cross the river and remains today as an historical reminder that the course was shaped by the sheep burrowing to get out of the wind. Those sand traps are brutal.
Worship where you want and in your own chosen way. Let’s all insist on keeping our nation a place where all of us are created equal and the Golden Rule is sacred.
Mike
Sistine Chapel
