davidy233
Tour Rookie
Hadn't played for a couple of months and was booked for a meal at The Adamson in St Andrews (superb restaurant - highly recommended) with the missus, so decided we'd have a wee stroll round the Balgove course at St Andrews Links, which I'd never played before.
It's the beginners, families and children's nine hole, course at St Andrews and it's basically a field with half decent tees and greens, made up of three par fours and six par threes.
It's short, very short, and has pretty much no rough though there are fairways cut, just 1520 yards for nine holes, but it's kept in immaculate condition and it was busy when we arrived at just after 4pm.
In front of us in the queue at the first tee were another couple while in front of them were two three balls of kids with two bags between them - it was quickly obvious that only two of the kids could play golf at all - one in each group and on the second tee they merged into a six ball.
"This could take a while "I thought but the youngsters stood aside to let both us and the couple in front through as soon as we had caught up with them.
The length of the holes was a bit weird 1 and 2 were Par 4s at just 220 and 219 yards respectively and the final three holes are all between 103 and 116 yards so there wasn’t much variety on those holes.
But for all that it's not anything like a good course it was fun, half decent greens, top notch turf and a big variety of people out playing, everything from the dad with all the gear and his two wee daughters with just a putter each (dad played the hole then when they got to the green the girls dropped a ball each and putted out) to a couple of foreign tourists with hire clubs who looked as if it was the first time they'd been on a golf course, to the guy who was playing on his own in front of us when we started a second nine, he had a nice set of blades and a beautiful swing as he fired what looked about a six iron to me into just a few feet at the 220 yard first - then reacted furiously as he missed the putt. That scenario was repeated at the 219 yard second - looked a cracking golfer but quite an angry man.
Par is 30 for nine holes and a decent golfer would probably shoot the lights out of it - after a couple of months off I was happy with 68 for 18 holes, which included a wedge to 3 inches on the 8th (116 yards) second time around - not sure if I'd have wanted my first ever hole in one to be on such a wee course.
You can't book a tee time on the Balgove and it costs £15 to play in the summer months (£8 the rest of the year) - but the starter's box was shut when we arrived so everyone who was waiting to tee off got free golf on a course where it's near impossible to lose a ball, enjoyed it a lot, nice way to waste a couple of hours on a lovely late afternoon in the Home of Golf.
It's the beginners, families and children's nine hole, course at St Andrews and it's basically a field with half decent tees and greens, made up of three par fours and six par threes.
It's short, very short, and has pretty much no rough though there are fairways cut, just 1520 yards for nine holes, but it's kept in immaculate condition and it was busy when we arrived at just after 4pm.
In front of us in the queue at the first tee were another couple while in front of them were two three balls of kids with two bags between them - it was quickly obvious that only two of the kids could play golf at all - one in each group and on the second tee they merged into a six ball.
"This could take a while "I thought but the youngsters stood aside to let both us and the couple in front through as soon as we had caught up with them.
The length of the holes was a bit weird 1 and 2 were Par 4s at just 220 and 219 yards respectively and the final three holes are all between 103 and 116 yards so there wasn’t much variety on those holes.
But for all that it's not anything like a good course it was fun, half decent greens, top notch turf and a big variety of people out playing, everything from the dad with all the gear and his two wee daughters with just a putter each (dad played the hole then when they got to the green the girls dropped a ball each and putted out) to a couple of foreign tourists with hire clubs who looked as if it was the first time they'd been on a golf course, to the guy who was playing on his own in front of us when we started a second nine, he had a nice set of blades and a beautiful swing as he fired what looked about a six iron to me into just a few feet at the 220 yard first - then reacted furiously as he missed the putt. That scenario was repeated at the 219 yard second - looked a cracking golfer but quite an angry man.
Par is 30 for nine holes and a decent golfer would probably shoot the lights out of it - after a couple of months off I was happy with 68 for 18 holes, which included a wedge to 3 inches on the 8th (116 yards) second time around - not sure if I'd have wanted my first ever hole in one to be on such a wee course.
You can't book a tee time on the Balgove and it costs £15 to play in the summer months (£8 the rest of the year) - but the starter's box was shut when we arrived so everyone who was waiting to tee off got free golf on a course where it's near impossible to lose a ball, enjoyed it a lot, nice way to waste a couple of hours on a lovely late afternoon in the Home of Golf.
