With now 30 British Opens played at St. Andrews dating to 1873, distilling the history of the Open and the Old Course into a dozen or fewer shots is no easy task.
Despite opening and closing holes that could be considered relatively easy — until the pressure is on — St. Andrews has provided some incredible moments.
For example, No. 1 is the easiest opening tee shot in championship golf, and also the most nerve-racking. The hole is fraught with history, tradition, the peering eyes of the R&A members from the nearby clubhouse and the prospects of trying not to go out-of-bounds right (easily within play) or left (as Ian Baker-Finch did) on a fairway that’s 100 yards wide.
Meanwhile, the home hole at St. Andrews is the least worrisome of the lot, as long as you don’t park your tee shot across the white boundary fence along The Link (a road) and its frontage of houses, hotels, clubhouses and shops. The green is indeed drivable, given the slightest favoring wind and some dry ground. The tee shot is toward the clock on the R&A clubhouse, from which it’s a wedge, bump-and-run or long putt through a deep swale (Valley of Sin) to a green sitting in the middle of town and farmed by huge spectator stands. It’s not a very testing hole but certainly a very sporting one – dense with tradition and emotion. In that sense, it’s a fitting end.
Many memories have been made at those two holes and others. Here is a look at the 11 greatest: