Playing 36 at St. Andrews

The Old Course at St. Andrews is golf’s most storied canvas, and for one weekend, Broken Tee Society member Griffith McDaniel played both routings of the home of golf. In this double edition of Playing 18, McDaniel loops the familiar championship routing first—zigzagging across double fairways, skirting Hell Bunker and reveling in his first loop of The Old Course. The next day brought a different perspective: a round on the seldom-seen reverse routing.

The following is an excerpt from “A Hard Left” by Bradley Klein from TGJ No. 10

The Old Course is the oldest recorded reversible layout, with play documented on what became known as the left-handed course as early as 1872 and continuing through at least 1904 on a regular weekly basis. After that, it was used intermittently for maintenance purposes or the occasional special event. Major championships were held on the standard right-handed layout, with the notable exception of the 1886 British Amateur, when the rotation called for the reverse sequence.

Sometime after World War I, the left-handed routing fell out of use, to be revived only a few times, in the first decade of the 2000s, to coincide with April Fool’s weekend.

Golfers today have grown accustomed to the right-handed course, with play proceeding counterclockwise along the right side of the double fairways and greens with the exception of the loop holes out at the turn, Nos. 8 through 11. The left-handed course, by contrast, proceeds clockwise, with play opening from the first tee to the 17th green and ending with a crossover shot from the second tee to the 18th green.

There aren’t many par 72s in the world with only two par 5s and two par 3s. Better yet, St. Andrews also sports symmetrical nines in terms of par sequence: 4-4-4-4-5-4-4-3-4 going out and 4-3-4-4-5-4-4-4-4 coming in. Incredibly, that exact sequence of par is preserved when the course is played in reverse. That makes for a second version of what mathematicians call a palindrome. (So, the next time someone asks you about the St. Andrews reverse course, you can explain that it’s doubly palindromic.)

In some ways, St. Andrews’ left-handed layout is completely alienating. Conventional hazards from the standard routing, like the Principal’s Nose on the 16th hole or Hell Bunker on No. 14, are transformed into insignificant flyover territory for drives. In other cases, unexplained oddities, like the fall-away alignment of the 14th green and that little unnamed pot bunker to the rear of it, now become central features whose logic is obvious and profound. All of a sudden, you’re playing over a tiny front bunker to a putting surface that supports the approach shot.

Warning: This video is very safe to watch at work.