2010 British Open Championship

2010: The Open Championship/ St. Andrews, Scotland

Every five years or so, the Open Championship is played at St. Andrews, the world’s  oldest golf course created some 600 years ago. Located on the St. Andrews Bay, which feeds into the North Sea on Scotland’s rugged northeastern coast, this quaint little village is the Bethlehem of Golf. It all started here.

This is the 150^th Open Championship. This competition is the oldest of its kind in the world. Willie Parker won the first Open at Prestwick in 1860. The runner-up that year was a chap named Tom Morris, Sr., known today as Old Tom Morris.

Born in 1820, Old Tom is credited as being a great player, clubmaker, greenkeeper and golf course designer. He excelled in every facet. To understand St. Andrews, you must know about Old Tom Morris.

He apprenticed under Allan Robertson, who was recognized as the world’s first golf professional. Robertson made featherine balls. When the gutta percha ball surfaced in 1849, Roberston and Morris had a famous split when Old Tom recognized the new ball “as the future of golf.”

Morris left for Prestwick in 1850 where he served as its first greenkeeper. He did double duty in 1860 as he prepared the course for competition and finished second in the tournament. Old Tom would go on to win four Open Championships. His first was in 1861. A year later he won by 13 strokes, which is the largest margin of victory in British Open history. After winning in 1864, Morris became the oldest Open champion at the age of 46 in 1867 and that record still stands today. Sorry, Tom Watson.

He returned to St. Andrews in 1865. By this time, his young son Tommy was already becoming a Scottish legend. People in this part of the world would argue that Young Tom Morris was the world’s first junior golf phenomena. Sorry, Tiger Woods. Young Tom’s accomplishments are legendary.

At the age of 13, Young Tom Morris won a celebrated exhibition match against the world’s best players. In 1866, at age 16, he was victorious in a star studded professional event at Carnoustie. He won the first of his four Open Championships in 1868, beating his father in what is still the only father/son combination to finish first and second at the British Open. That same year, Young Tom had golf’s first recorded hole-in-one. 

Young Tom receives credit for the creation of the Claret Jug, which is presented to the Open champion. Traditionally, the victorious player was presented with the Challenge Belt after winning the Open. When Young Tom won his third straight Open in 1870, he retired the Belt and the Claret Jug became the new prize. There was no Open in 1871 and Young Tom grabbed the Claret Jug in 1872.   

Three years later, while playing in an exhibition match Young Tom received word that his wife and child died during child birth. Morris died three months later on Christmas Day. The cause of death was not known.

“People say he died of a broken heart but if that was true, I wouldn’t be here either,” said Old Tom Morris.

Following his son’s tragic death, Old Tom consumed himself in his duties at St. Andrews and became actively involved in shaping the design of some of the world’s greatest courses. Besides Prestwick, he gets credit for Royal Dornoch, Muirfield, Carnoustie and Royal County Down. Today, the 18^th green at the Old Course is named in his honor.

Old Tom toiled at St. Andrews until his retirement in 1904. During his 39 years as the greenkeeper he instituted many of today’s modern golf course maintenance practices. In 1899, he took on an apprentice greenkeeper at St. Andrews named Donald Ross who would become a future golf course design genius.

Morris died in 1907 and is buried beside his son in a cemetery that is at the old Cathedral ruins in St. Andrews, just a few hundred yards up the hill from the Old Course. There are many hair raising experiences when a golfer makes their first pilgrimage to the town of St. Andrews. Visiting the gravesites of golf’s most famous father and son is near the top of the list.

The inscription on Young Tom’s tombstone reads as follows: “Deeply regretted by numerous friends and all golfers, he thrice in succession won the Championship belt and held it without envy, his amiable qualities being no less acknowledged than his golfing achievements.”

Everything about St. Andrews, the town and the Old Course, explodes with history and uniqueness. The Old Course greens average a square footage of 22,267- compared to 6,435 at Augusta National and 3,500 at Pebble Beach. The Old Course only has 11 different greens because there are seven double greens. And in one of those mystical instances of golf numerology, the sum totals of the two holes sharing each of the double greens conveniently equals 18 (2/16, 3/15, 4/14. 5/13, 6/12, 7/11 and 8/10).

Of all the British Open venues, St. Andrews has the widest fairways. It would appear to be the widest course in championship golf. The shared first and 18^th fairway alone is 140 yards wide. But, the bail out area on every fairway always produces the toughest approach angle to the green.

One hundred fifty years of championship golf. The extraordinary features of the Old Course. The village of St. Andrews overlooking the North Sea. The gravesites of Old and Young Tom. This is truly golf’s version of Bethlehem!

Bethpage Black

Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman brought plenty of attention to the term “Bucket List” in a movie that they co-starred in a few years ago. For those that don’t know, a bucket list is a term that defines the things that an individual would want to do before they leave this Earth.

Golfers often talk about their own bucket list when it comes to the courses they want to play before they die. In my case, Augusta National, Pebble Beach and Prestwick in Scotland are courses that highlight my own personal bucket list. These are places that I have been lucky enough to play. There are many other venues that I have been fortunate enough to experience, but until this week those three stood out.

Augusta National is every golfers dream. Pebble Beach could be the most spectacular setting in the world. Prestwick was founded in 1851 and was the site of the first 12 British Open Championships. It’s hard to beat that lineup, but after this week I will add a fourth to my bucket list.

Bethpage Black on Long Island was the site of the 2002 and 2009 United States Opens. Tiger Woods won the first Open at Bethpage and Lucas Glover prevailed last year when Bethpage became a swamp after late June rains deluged the New York City area.

The Bethpage Park complex is owned by the State of New York and it consists of five golf courses- the Black, Red, Blue, Yellow and Green. While the Black course gets the modern day recognition, the Green was built in 1923. The Red and Blue were opened in 1935, one year ahead of the Black. Tillinghast, the famed golf course architect, gets the credit for designing the courses at Bethpage.

Dave Catalano is the Director of Bethpage State Park. He has served in that position since 1995. Catalano actually first started to work at Bethpage in 1967 when he got out of college. He once served as the golf course superintendent for the Green course.

“My job is to keep everything coordinated, which is not an easy task sometimes,” says Catalano. “We have 50-80 employees who are charged with taking care of the five golf courses, adjacent polo fields and picnic areas.”

The Bethpage experience is widely known in golf circles. Players line up the night before to secure precious starting times. When I played last Tuesday, the five Bethpage courses entertained nearly 1,700 rounds- that day!

“I would say that 1,700-1,800 per day is a little busy,” observed Catalano. “Our typical day this year is around 1,450. Play is down this year. We have had perfect weather, so I would say the economy has had an impact. We raised our fees and that probably hurt as well.”

The fees to play the Black course, assuming you can get on, are $135 weekdays and $155 on weekends. Residents can play for $70 and $80, respectively. Fees on the other four courses at Bethpage range from $36-$41.

The thing that makes Bethpage extremely unique is that you see walkers with pull carts, people toting their own bags, blue collar types and the Manhattan execs. No golf cars are allowed on the Black course. The parking lot extends over acres because it takes some space to accommodate vehicles for 1,800 people. The clubhouse area is like the proverbial ant hill with golfers crawling everywhere. It’s difficult to find 20-feet of open space on the putting green and plan to stand in line if you want to hit a warm-up bucket.

However, the entire buzz is left behind when you step onto the first tee at Bethpage Black. You are about to enter a tranquil, but brutal course that sports some of the world’s toughest holes. I have been fortunate to play Augusta National the past two years. I can tell you that Bethpage Black matched the pristine playing conditions that The Masters site is known for.

My foursome on Tuesday included my daughter, Ambry. We were joined by Doug who sells lubricants and lives in The Hamptons. He packed his own sack. Our fourth player was Tom, as anesthesiologist from New Jersey, who showed up with a pull cart. Tom set the tone on the first tee, “Well, we are here. We might as well play it all the way back.”

Doug and I looked at each other and said, why not. So, we tackled the 7,498 yard par 72 obstacle course. As Doug would later describe Tom’s game, “He hits it forever, but he has no zip code.”

Pace of play for our round was five hours and 15 minutes. My highlight was making a birdie on Number 4. This is the signature hole for the Black course. It is an uphill par 5 that plays longer than the 517 scorecard yardage.

Catalano said it best, “The diversity of our players at Bethpage is really unique. We have all races, all economic types. To do that everyday and host U.S. Opens with the best players in the world is pretty special.”

The term Bethpage is a Biblical reference to a strip of land that lies between Israel and Jerusalem. According to Catalano, founders of the Bethpage community encouraged government leaders to name this special spot with that in mind. They did it with geographical implications in mind.

After Tuesday, I would propose that from a golf standpoint, the name is absolutely perfect. With all its beauty, serenity, craziness, crowdedness, diversity, hackers, avid players and best golfers in the world- Bethpage Black lies somewhere between everything in the sport of golf. Bethpage Black just landed squarely in my bucket!