McCARTHY: Phew! Patio season is over on the Old Course

Breadcrumb Trail Links

1. golf

A suggested use for Tim “Lumpy” Herron’s stone patio. Photo by screenshot /Twitter/PGALumpy

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Ditch Twitter, the most hotly debated patio in the Gulf will be a thing of the past.

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Two days after photos emerged showing a rather striking new entrance to the Swilcan Bridge on the Old Course, St Andrews Links Trust announced plans to remove its latest refurbishment. We can all get angry again about something even less important.

Hopefully that doesn’t ruin patios’ reputations, as most are great.

Last spring my golf club built a new stone patio and it has received universal praise. Of course, the one on my course wasn’t built on the 18th fairway attached to a historic landmark. However, ours connects the halfway house to the pool area, which is nice.

In case you’re not following, the biggest golfing story of the weekend happened more than 7,000km away from the golfing action at Pebble Beach or Saudi International. All they wanted to talk about was the new stone entrance to the Swilcan Bridge.

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With all the foot traffic that golf’s most famous bridge receives year-round, apparently keeping the grass healthy (or even alive) around the popular photo spot was quite a task. Apparently the answer was to build a rather flashy round stone patio in front of it. On Saturday, the first photo of the project went viral; a day later St. Andrews Links felt obliged to defend it; Plans were announced on Monday to have it removed.

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Social media had set her hair on fire, turning the event into an international event, as well as of course a meme competition featuring objects such as patio furniture, hot tubs and even the Millenium Falcon photoshopped onto the stage.

From Golf-Twitter’s reaction (always wise in their judgement), one would have thought someone had painted a mustache on the Mona Lisa. In fact, a gentleman called it exactly that @warrenallsworth wrote. And on Monday morning his tweet made the front page of The Courier, a 220-year-old Scottish newspaper. The accompanying article broke the news that Fife Council is investigating whether the ‘terrace’ was built without proper local planning permission and whether the fine folk at St Andrews Links Trust may be required to apply for retrospective permits.

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Flashing back to Sunday and just after lunch (perfect time for a bite on the patio) all the jokes and apparent outrage on social media had gone far enough to prompt St Andrews Links to make a statement on the matter:

“We would like to address some of the concerns that have been raised regarding work currently underway in the approach area to the Swilcan Bridge…”

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The statement went on to reassure everyone that no work was being done on the actual bridge (which is a protected historic landmark) and further explain how difficult it is to grow weed in the area, with all the foot traffic from those, who want to take pictures of the bridge. And that they tried artificial turf there once, lest anyone think that this is the first inappropriate attempt to remedy the situation.

“It should be noted that work is ongoing and ongoing efforts are being made to ensure the final installation, including size, shape and material, is appropriate to the environment.”

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In other words, relax everyone, we’ll find out, just need to shave off a bit here or there and maybe add some more cement. In 100 years you won’t even be able to know.

I have to admit, part of me finds it fitting, even charming, that the world’s most famous golf course seems to have called in its pal to redecorate the front porch.

In many ways this is one of the reasons we love the Old Course and links country golf in general. It’s not always perfect and flawless and doesn’t take itself quite as seriously as the game over here. Of course, you can point through the windows of the R&A building behind the 18th green at the white-haired men in suits who rule the Old Course and say I’m crazy. But even there, among them, you get the feeling that it’s all just fun and slightly absurd in the end. Even at the Open there’s no crying and hand wringing when the score is under 20, it just means the sun was shining, the weather was good and that’s always worth celebrating in Scotland. Let the boys show off a little.

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So before jumping on Twitter to scream that this is a disgrace to the game and someone should be fired, maybe people should have taken a minute to think about why the bridge is in this state. It happened because every Sunday, one of the greatest golf courses in the world turns into a public park where families stroll around, kids run across greens, and dogs, well, do dog things. It happened because hundreds of thousands of golf fans from around the world had the opportunity (with or without a tee time) to go straight to the game’s most famous landmark and take a picture and leave a memory.

If you haven’t been to St Andrews I recommend you go. It is the greatest place in this vast world of golf. Stand on the Swilcan Bridge and take a picture. Terrace or not, I promise you won’t be looking at the ground.

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Source: canoe.com