The Golf

The Open Championship has arrived. (Now, it is very important to note that I said "THE OPEN" and not 'The British Open'. Because as far as anyone over here is concerned, The Open is the first and oldest of the majors and therefore does not need to be distinguished by any other adjectives.) As a result, my quiet little town by the sea has been overrun! And its only going to get worse, as Saturday and Sunday are the really big days.

No offense to any of you golf fans out there who might be reading this, but one can spot the golf fans in this town from a mile away. A group of us were in the pub Sunday night watching the World Cup Final (rooting for the Netherlands), and 'golf tourist' spotting. Its kind of a time-honoured St Andrean sport: 'There's one.' 'Oh! there's another one.' 'Um, another.' 'Do you think they even know what it is that we are watching?' 'Nah. They're just looking around for Tiger.'

Anyway, things are a bit crazy around here. Well, at one end of town really. The end furthest from the golf course is relatively quiet. But as for the rest of town, you need reservations to get into the restaurants, they're charging twice as much for the buses from the train station--of which they are running twice as many, and the University is even closed Thursday and Friday because faculty and staff members won't be able to find parking. But there is a rather festive feeling throughout town which kind of makes up for the disturbance.

On Tuesday the University awarded honorary degrees to Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson and Padraig Harrington. The procession walked right past my house. Wednesday's weather was absolutely awful, and of course, that was the day I had paid to go see final practice day of The Golf (as it is simply referred to around here). There was practically no one practicing. But my housemate Ginger and I had a good time anyway, even though we were soaked to the bone. We had a number of good laughs courtesy of true Scottish weather.

I went down to the 18th around lunchtime yesterday and stood in the 'free' section with some friends. We saw Tom Watson, Ernie Els, Ian Poulter, Stewart Cink, Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Graeme McDowell, and Tiger Woods. I should have saved my 40 quid from Wednesday! But then again, you can never really predict the weather in St Andrews.

While I will admit that I'm not really that into golf, the hoopla in this small town regarding The Open certainly is a sight to behold! For those of you who really are into golf, enjoy the pictures below. (If you want to see them larger, or to take your own time viewing them, just click on one and it will take you to the website I made the album on. From there you can browse at your leisure.)

Fore!