Old Course Renovated Ahead of The Open

The Saint spoke to greenskeeper Harry Kerr about the changes

It's been a busy winter for the greenskeepers of St Andrews. Over the last few months, in preparation for next year's 155th Open Championship, a major renovation project has been undertaken on the Old Course. 

The Saint spoke with Old Course groundskeeper and university alumnus, Harry Kerr, about the changes to St Andrews’ oldest and most famous golf course.

“We’ve been non-stop with these works since October,” Kerr said. “It’s been a real challenge, but an exciting and fulfilling one.” 

This winter's works were the most extensive project on the course since it was significantly lengthened for the Open in 2005. 

This year’s renovation has involved further extending the course, and installing new bunkers. 

“The changes serve to eliminate a type of golf that has been seen more and more over recent years, where golfers have just been trying to hit it as far as possible,” Kerr said. “The holes have all been lengthened slightly and we have added a bunker to the left of the sixth and tenth fairways, this will mean that none of these holes are easily drivable.”  

This should make for more exciting viewing, come the Open. The fairway bunkers and hazards which the average golfer has to negotiate just don't come into play when you can regularly drive the ball over 350 yards. 

In 2027, however, big hitters should find it much harder to muscle their way ahead of the field, and we might see those who take a shorter, more accurate approach being rewarded. In the last edition of the Open held at St Andrews, Cam Smith won at twenty under par. This time, Kerr suggested that we might see a significantly lower winning score, more in the region of twelve to fifteen under. 

“I don’t think the answer in a more general sense is to make golf courses longer, or to keep adding bunkers,” Kerr said. He proposed that changes to course maintenance could be the way forward for courses where major enhancements are impractical or undesirable.

Image from Wikimedia Commons