# Course Review - The Eden course at St.Andrews



## Paul_Stewart (Aug 2, 2010)

The Eden course is the 4th oldest of the seven courses at St.Andrews Links and it situated to the left of the Old Course as you look at television coverage with the early holes running parallel but opposite to the 12th to 15th holes on the Old Course.

The course plays 6,250 yards from the whites and is a par 70.

After a short initial par four to a wickedly sloping green in front of the old cottage, you play away up the hill and into the prevailing wind.  The short par-4 4th hole is alongside the Eden Estuary and any shot is seriously affected by the wind with out of bounds running the length of the hole on the right.

The 5th and 8th are par threes that play from parallel tees to parallel greens both with huge slopes and pot bunkers.

The best birdie chance is the downwind par-5 9th hole that brings you back to close by the clubhouse before heading back out again towards the Estuary.

This is a traditional links with gorse, heather and pot bunkers, although surprisingly, the 14th and 15th both have a water hazard affecting play which seems somewhat out of place at St.Andrews.

The finishing stretch is tough with 17 a truly nasty par-4 with out of bounds competing with deep bunkers on the other side of the fairway for which can attract your ball.

The cost of playing there is Â£40 per round, but you can get three and seven day passes that cover all courses at St.Andrews except the Old.

I was able to play there as the opening round of a week-long trip around Scotland and had no problem getting on at 5.40 on a Sunday evening, even being offered the opportunity to play from the white championship tees if I so desired.

It was also only a week after the Open and the greens and approaches were a little scruffy as naturally all attention had been focused on the Old Course for the previous fortnight. 

Overall, the Eden is a decent enough links course although some way behind the Old, New, Jubilee and new Castle courses in the pecking order at St.Andrews.  But if you are there for a few days, then it is worth playing as part of the complete package.

http://www.standrews.org.uk/The-Courses/The-Eden-Course.aspx


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## StuartD (Aug 2, 2010)

The eden used to be a cracking wee course. It used to start and finish at the front of the Hotel before they built the driving range. Think they removed 1,2,17 and 18 to build the range and added some holes out the far end one of which has that stupid water hazard


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## Paul_Stewart (Aug 2, 2010)

Most of the locals don't like the changes at all and 14 and 15 are just not links holes at all.


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## Dodger (Aug 2, 2010)

It was the 1st course I played in St Andrews and it was a cracking wee track until they made the changes. It is now not a great course as the new holes are totally out of character with the rest sadly.

Another thing about the changes is that if they hadn't been made I would doubt if the Open would be able to fit in to the space they had back then,making the changes enabled them to have the tented village and various other entegral parts of the huge Open operation in the correct places.


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## brendy (Aug 2, 2010)

Tidied to keep on topic.


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## stef92 (Aug 4, 2010)

I played it on the Tuesday after the Open! It was a cracking wee gem! However the greens were horrendous, but as previously mentioned for other reasonsâ€¦ perhaps a larger event happening close byâ€¦!

Would love to play it again, well worth a go if you are up in the town!


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## sawtooth (Aug 4, 2010)

Thanks for the review, I'm playing a comp there in September so hopefully the greens will have improved by then.


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## StuartD (Aug 5, 2010)

Link to an article on the Eden course history which mentions the recent changes

http://www.golfcoursearchitecture.net/Article/The-origins-of-Eden-at-St-Andrews/1802/Default.aspx

Looks like dodger is correct the changes had to be made purely for a practice range and tented village when the open is in town


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