Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-06-22
ST. ANDREWS GOLF LINKS
GREEN TURF, LITTLE KNoLLS,
GOLDEN PATCHES OF SAND.
Ancient Game Has Been Played
There Time Out of Mind-Club-
house and Clubmakers Shops.
Andrew Lang. in the Independent.

long expanse of short. green grass. swell
ing into little knobs. with golden patches
of sand it is bordered and protected from
the east wind and the sea by a low, ir
regular range of sand banks prickly with
bent" long. sharp grasses. and bounded
toward the north by range of family
tinted hills the knees of the Grampians.
whose snowy Crests are dimly discerned
In the extreme distance To the east lies
the Northern sea. on the left are the
woods of Stra,htyrum. an old house once
owned by Archbishop Sharp, who was
murdered in the neghborhood by dozen
Covenanters Q6Ig.
The stretch of green is the links of ST.
Andrews. where golf has been played
from time immemorial. though we do not
find mention of it here much before the
Reformation CISCO. a period when every
body played. Perhaps visitors who know
the place will think my description too
poetical for I have avoided mention of
the clubhouse of the Royal and Ancient.
which stands on rising ground behind
the first tee and is a monument of mixed
architecture. Nor have l alluded to the
houses and clubmakers shops on the
south side of the first hole or to the rail-
way buildings and the railway on the left
of the second hole. or to the serpentining
Swilcan burn which forms a hazard just
before it contributes its tiny waters to
the main. The burn is by no means a
fined by a practical embankment. though
II is crossed by very ancient stone bridge
with low parapet. across which came the
horses, or mules. of old. laden with pro-
visions for the townspeople and the Au-
gustinian canons of the abbey The green
track of the old bride path from Cupar
is still visible on the links.
The Old Town.
The majority of golfing visitors to ST.
Andrews know next nothing OF the
town and its antiquities. From the last
hole they cannot help seeing the towers
which are almost all that remains of the
cathedral and the tall. campanie-like
tower of st. Regulus, probably of the
twelfth century. and the crumbing sea
tower of the bishops castle hanging above
the sea. But apparently they take no
notice of these features in the landscape.
for a very intelligent American golfer
asked a friend of mine whether there
was anything beyond the post office,
meaning the tobacconists shop near the
club. l must repent having bored an
other young American by taking him
about the town and pressing TO him about
ST. Regulus and the Duke of Rothesay.
George Wishart. Cardinal Beaton, who
was murdered in the castle; John Knox,
who. with the murderers. was captured
therein by the French; Archbishop Ham
iton, who lived in the castle and was
hanged; Archbishop Sharp who was cut
10 pieces: Robert Bruce. who was present
when the cathedral was finally conse-
Grated; Queen Mary. who dTelt in an old
house near the cathedral; George Doug
las. who rescued her from prison in an
isle of Loeb Leven and has left his arms
engraven on the wall; George Buchanan.
who abode in ST. Leonard's; the great
Montrose. who won the medal for arch
cry and left it to his college; Bishop Ken
nedy, who built the college. and other
dead persons for whom my friend. like
Huckieberry Finn, had no use" He did
infa inns In ChaS Uh IN
was executed in Market street for making
too adventurous love to Queen Mary. or
tn the Lyon Herald. who was burned for
sorcery: or in Patrick Hamilton. who
was burned a Lutheran outside the
gate of the college.
In short. the Reformation did not occur
in America; and my friend was frankly
ignorant of all these old world person
ages and adventures-of all these good
old golfers. King Jamie. James Melville.
Queen Mary and Montrose. and the young
minister to whom the devil meeting him
on the Jubilee course, gave an excellent
sermon in exchange for his signature to
an important little document If we be-
leve Rev. Mr.. Woodrow. the friend and
these people are only the ghosts that
haunt the links and are visible to the eyes
of my memory; indeed. lady OF my
friends saw the cardinal hanging out Of
the window whence his dead body was
suspended. But she has very unusual
powers of vision,
Golf Of Today.
To leave the past On which l am too
apt TO live and return TO the golfing
present. The players strike off from a
tee close TO the club. and the first hole
ought not TO be done in more than five
strokes, and is occasionally done in :nree.
Everybody should be able to cross the
first hazard. the road to the sea, and with
his second should at least be near enough
10 n VI AT t.ar
which there is only putting to be ON
plished in two or three strokes. II the
holes are arranged on the left side the
player has next 10 cross the scholars
bunker" in which nobody should fail. and
has then Il long drive beleagured by bunk
ers. with fair chance of coming % grief
on cart track on the extreme left. or
over the wall of the old station. f these
are escaped there is awkward an
proach over bunkers chat is, here and
always, deep, irregular sand PITS TO the
second putting green. Five is respec.
able number of shots for this hole, four is
very good.
The dangers in the course to the third
hole are the railway skrting the left 81 1e:
a man who hooks will get into the foot
ball field the further side of the rail-
way. where there is very snug lying"
but the railway line itself several
strokes may be needed. A straight drive
from the tee ought to carry the Princi-
pals Nose" a hillOck containing three
bunkers and thence there is an approach
shot TO the third putting green. difficult
shot. as there is yawning bunker to the
right. If you evade the hazards. and putt
decently. the hole should be yours in four
Sutherland's Bunkers.
Hitting off to the fourth hole your dam
ser is that long shot may be punished
by Sutherland's bunker. a small. danger
GUS pit. Avoiding that, you encounter a
long deep bunker stretching almost across
the course; in wet weather it becomes a
small loch. There is a great deal of
rough hummocky ground beyond IT,,
whence an iron or mashy should land you
on the green. and you may do 1t in four.
though five is not very bad.
Hitting TO the fifth or long hole" (some
He'll, but that famous old bunker has
lost most of its tcrrors IN the course of
time To the right of il the Kitchen Is
dang and YOU may fail to cross
rough ground and a declivity, and to be
the Elysian fields a long. smooth ia
bleland of beautiful turf. Once there. II
YOU do not hit over a low wall into a fed
or slice into a set of deep bunkers called
the BeardieS, the way is clear to the
putting green. This hole is seldom done.
by most players under five strokes.
topped shot from the next tee is badly
punished in the rough grass of broken
ground, and then a deep little valley,
barred by long, narrow tableland. has to