Editors' Blog Blogger Bio

Sharing space at the Old Course

ST ANDREWS, Scotland--One of the most unique features of the Old Course is not only the massive size of the greens, but the company they keep. There are seven double-greens in all--one of which is more than an acre in size--leaving only four holes (Nos. 1, 9, 17 and 18) with their own greens.

The unique sharing of the greens produces some excellent viewing for spectators, none better than the hill overlooking the 11th tee box. From this vantage point, you can see groups putting on holes 10 and 8 to the right of the 11th tee, as well as holes 11 and 7. You can see the approaches to 7 and 10 as well as the tee shots on 8, 11 and 12. And if you have a pair of binoculars, you can also see groups putting out on No. 9.

Sound confusing? It is. I spent more than an hour at this location during Saturday's third round, watching the leaders come through, and it probably took me about a half hour before I figured out which green belonged to which hole, and which group was on which hole. The quirkiest thing about this patch of holes is that the players hitting into the 7th green must play their approach shots over the pin on No. 11. The balls can literally cross paths in the air, which begs the question, is there an air-traffic controller nearby?

The strangest sequence on Saturday on these holes occurred when current leader Lorena Ochoa was putting for par on the par-4 7th. As she lined up her putt, a ball on the 11th green stood no more than 15 paces behind the hole, right on her line. Ochoa missed the attempt, one of three bogeys on her card.

She made a terrific up and down on the par-3 11th hole, pitching the ball over the treacherous Strath bunker and running it down the slope to the front pin location. The 160-yard hole, which played into a strong left-to-right crosswind that was mostly into the face of the players, yielded only two birdies to the field on Saturday (Grace Park, Karen Stupples). It did, however, produce 31 bogeys, one double bogey and two triples.