St. Andrews

It started out as a beautiful sunny day.  We drove north from Edinburgh heading for St. Andrews, the famous golf course where the game of golf started.  Just north of Edinburgh is the town of Queensferry where there are two bridges crossing the Firth of Forth.  One bridge is for trains, the other is for cars.  Scots called a bay a firth.  The Firth of Forth stretches far inland and these two bridges provide a short cut to the area north of Edinburgh.  Once we crossed the bridge, we drove along the Fife Coastal Path.  We are now in the Kingdom of Fife.  We passed through small towns like Kinghorn, Kirkcaldy (where Adam Smith was born),  Leven, Antrusther (where it's supposed to have the best fish & chips), and finally St. Andrews.
Seeing the St. Andrews Old Course is an amazing experience for a golfer like me.  I've never even been to Augusta but now I've been to St. Andrews.  There are 45 golf courses in the area and they are all probably just as nice but the Old Course is where the busloads of tourists come to see and some to play.  I found out that it's not as expensive to play on the Old Course as many would think.  It costs about 150 pounds (about $230) to play a round, less than what some of the very nice courses charge in the US.  You can try to get a tee time 2 days in advance by balloting.  If you cannot get a tee time on the Old Course, you can always play 3 other courses next to the Old Course.  While we were walking around the area, the wind was blowing and it was quite cold, probably in the 40s' or less than 10C.  I don't think it'd be fun play in this kind of weather but that's how golf is in Scotland.

Vehicle and Passenger Bridge across Firth of Forth

Train Bridge across Firth of Forth

Map of the Old Course

Royal & Ancient Golf Clubhouse from the 18th Green

Looking down the 18th fairway from the green

Hotel where the professional golfers stay when they play The Open

We had a nice meal of fish & chips in the St. Andrews Links Clubhouse

We tried to have lunch here but we'd have to wait for 1 hour

Fishing boats in Antrusther

Beach where they filmed the movie Chariots of Fire