We were a bit amazed this morning to find that the Dunhill Cup is being played on the Old Course and that today entry to the event is FREE. What amazing luck. Needless to say we took advantage of this and spent a number of short sessions watching the game, mostly from the grand stand at the 18th, where incidentally (due to the good weather) we saw numerous birdies.
In addition to the golf we did a little sightseeing around St Andrews. A bit of a gruesome place is some regards. A sea side cliff line where suspected witches were once pushed to their deaths. St Andrews was somewhat of a center for the rise of the Scottish Reformation Church and its battles with the then entrenched Catholics. Reformers where burned at the stake here and at least one Catholic Bishop pulled from his cathedral and murdered.
One of the dominant historical sights of the town is the old and ruined Cathedral. It must have been immense in its day. One fact that really took my fancy. The Cathedral was finished in 1318 after 150 years of construction.
I cannot leave out Chariots of Fire Beach. The main beach in St Andrews, which is beside the golf courses, is beautiful and sandy and today was subject to a large tidal swing so a vast expanse of the sand was visible at low tide. This beach was the setting for the "running on the beach" scenes in Chariots of Fire.
Having been thus inspired I can not wait to get home to my golf clubs.