A measure of an old man’s golfing frailty might be the ability to drive on the full over the road crossing the opening fairway of The Old Course at St Andrews.
Late on Wednesday evening and just as the first blue sky of the week was making an appearance Arnold Palmer and Peter Thomson, both now 85 came to the most famous tee in golf and bumped a couple of drives down the wide expanse of perfect golfing turf. Neither made it over the road on the fly but in variance of their driving powers of their prime years it was Thomson who drove the longer.
Palmer did admit it was only his second shot of the year but our Five-Time champion is hardly seen on the links every day either.
A collection of past champions played a four hole ‘match’ on the loop of holes close to the clubhouse, which finishes with the most famous 17th hole in golf and the most famous finisher. Everything it seems worthy of qualifying as ‘the most famous thing in golf’ is at St Andrews as it should be. Augusta’s 12th is in competition with the Eden hole as the best known short hole but aside from that The Old Course wins every time. Even the bridges at Augusta named after Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson pale when compared to the Swilken Bridge across the burn at the 18th. Ever see Old Tom Morris walk across The Hogan Bridge?
Tom Weiskopf the champion in 1973 is almost 70 now but still a big strong man capable of hitting tremendous and powerful shots showed of his elegant swing to those too young to ever see it at its best. Jordan Spieth has already won more majors that Weiskopf but if you put them on the range together in their primes (in fairness Spieth is probably not even in his prime) you might watch Spieth hit a couple of shots before turning your attention to the best swinger of his generation.
We can only wonder what sort of golfer we’d have seen if somehow they could have put Spieth’s head on Weiskopf’s shoulders but such is the beauty and difficulty of golf. Probably you would finish up with Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods.
Tom Watson, playing his final Open, spoke glowingly of the contribution of Palmer and how important he was to the prestige of The Open and it’s growing into what is now the world championship of golf. It’s true Palmer was a massive force beginning with his one shot loss to Kel Nagle in 1960 and then his consecutive wins at Birkdale and Troon. He did encourage other Americans to come but they hardly all started coming until the prizemoney was included in the American list. It was a comment on their insularity and the assumption everything great in golf could only possibly happen at home.
It was Thomson who through the 1950s kept the championship alive with his brilliant play. Here was a master of the game, the shots and the temperament required to win on the links. No one was bothered less by a bad bounce or a dodgy lie. He understood there were good and not so good times of the day to play and dealing with having to hit a long iron through a fierce and cold wind on a hole a fellow competitor might have done with a drive and a pitch earlier in the day was all a part of the charm of the golf and the test of a champion.
Nothing much has changed except the silly distances they all drive now, something, which has taken something from charm of playing the Old Course. The original rule was you were to tee off within two club-lengths of the hole but Old Tom (still the most famous bearded golfer) made areas close to the green specifically for driving down the next hole. The beauty of his tees was the proximity to the greens and how easily play transitioned from one to the other. Now every tee practically is moved back and every walk is the same dull and predictable trudge backwards and right for fifty meters. Probably they had to do it in order to keep the course relevant but it’s a shame they didn’t fix the ball instead. The irony of course it it’s the same people responsible for both decisions.
The 1st tee is one they cannot move back and whilst it’s a little far back for Thomson and Palmer the modern champions – Woods, Oosthuizen, Els, Mickelson –now run the ball down the opening fairway with irons. One day though they too may have trouble carrying the road but one day sixty years from now a little kid might be able to say he was Ernie Els hit a shot.
Yesterday there were many who saw for the first time Arnold Palmer and Peter Thomson hit a shot. That Thomson needed three woods to reach the last green and Palmer needed a golf cart to get there mattered not a whit.