Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club

The above picture is of our 17 Century English Society class with our teacher, Dr. Ian Archer. Dr. Archer is the sub-warden of Keble College and acts as the liaison between UGA and Keble/Oxford in addition to being quite a character. It has nothing to do with the following but is a neat picture.

This past Monday and Tuesday, I undertook another solo mission to an Open rotation golf course, this time to Royal Lytham and St. Annes Golf Club. Royal Lytham & St. Annes has hosted ten opens, going back to 1926 when Bobby Jones won his first open. It will also host the open again in 2012. The clubhouse is full of Bobby Jones memorabilia including all four of his 1926 scorecards. Also, on the course, there is a plaque commemorating Jones’s miraculous shot that sealed the open for him (both the cards and the plaque are pictured below). Other champions at the club include Gary Player, Seve Ballesteros, Tom Lheman, and David Duval.

The distinct thing about this club is that they have a dormy house (see the bottom two pictures below), similar to the crow’s nest at Augusta National, that is open to visiting golfers on the weekdays. I was lucky enough to get a good deal and stay at the club for Monday night. The package included formal dinner (coat and tie), breakfast and lunch in the clubhouse as well as my round of golf, each of which were incredible. Again, it was a solo-mission, as William bailed on me, so the meals were a bit lonely, but the views of the course form my table more than made up for it. Unfortunately, I had to write a paper on Monday night, so I was not able to mingle in the clubhouse and poker room with the other dormy house guests. It was a late night and an early morning, but I would certainly do it again. Below are a few shots of the dining room and clubhouse. You can see the portraits of Jones, arguably the greatest golfer ever who also co-founded Augusta National, in the upper right, Player, in the lower left, Seve, in the bottom/middle left, and Lheman and Duval in the Lower right.

I woke up early Tuesday morning to the sight shown below. The weather was beyond perfect by English standards, 55, sunny, and most importantly, no wind. I had a 8:20 tee time, so after a very long night’s work it was a quick turn around, but again, it was worth it. I met my caddy a bit before the round, he watched me hit a few balls and we were off. Gary, my caddy, much like the one at Royal St. Georges was awesome; he really helped my game and showed me many famous places on the course like where Tiger nearly drove the green on a down-wind 470 yard par 4 and where he made a triple bogey after going bunker to bunker.

Again, I played decent, but not as well as at Royal St. Georges, as I shot the same score but in much more favorable conditions. I hacked it around pretty good on the front shooting 47 and three putting several times but shot a respectable, by my standards, 43 on the back for an unimpressive total of 90. I played much better on the back so I am hoping to parlay that into an impressive score at Turnberry this weekend, where William and I will face off in what is shaping up to be a Watson and Nicklausesque battle. Here is a video I stumbled across that has really been getting my blood flowing for Monday. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsjJ2dJaQlo