What it’s like competing on the Old Course at St. Andrews

There’s attending to play the Old Course at St. Andrews after which there’s enjoying in competitors on the Old Course.

It’s at all times particular to play certainly one of the most historic programs in the sport and the place credited as the dwelling of golf. When the Notre Dame males’s and ladies’s golf groups headed throughout the pond for the inaugural St. Andrews Links Collegiate, they obtained to expertise the Old Course in a means so few individuals can.

“One word would be special,” Fighting Irish freshman Rocco Salvitti stated of the alternative to compete at St. Andrews. “It was definitely more than I expected.”

GOLF tagged together with the Notre Dame squads as they ready for and performed in the one-of-a-kind faculty occasion that includes three different colleges: Georgetown, North Carolina and Vanderbilt. The journey and occasion have been documented in GOLF’s newest documentary, Beyond The Bend, which you’ll be able to watch in full above.

The match was the first-ever U.S. faculty occasion held at St. Andrews with the opening two rounds going down on the Jubilee course earlier than shifting to the Old Course for the remaining spherical.

It was additionally a novel expertise for all the colleges concerned as every had each its males’s and ladies’s groups competing concurrently.

Salvitti obtained the likelihood to stay round the seventeenth inexperienced after his spherical and watch each his males’s group and ladies’s group teammates end their rounds.

One of these gamers he obtained to look at was graduate pupil Lauren Beaudreau who had it to 5 underneath throughout her remaining spherical at one level.

“My parents were here, so it was just great to close out such a memorable week with a really nice round,” Beaudreau stated, after a final-round 70.

Graduate pupil captain Palmer Jackson loved attending to have an Old Course caddie for the remaining spherical.

“I was just talking to my caddie about where certain guys in the Open hit it and historic shots, it was just kind of a really cool experience,” Jackson stated.

For extra on Notre Dame’s journey to the Home of Golf for the St. Andrews Links Collegiate, you possibly can watch GOLF’s full documentary, Beyond The Bend, here.

Jack Hirsh

Golf.com Editor

Jack Hirsh is an assistant editor at GOLF. A Pennsylvania native, Jack is a 2020 graduate of Penn State University, incomes levels in broadcast journalism and political science. He was captain of his highschool golf group and lately returned to the program to function head coach. Jack additionally nonetheless *tries* to stay aggressive in native amateurs. Before becoming a member of GOLF, Jack spent two years working at a TV station in Bend, Oregon, primarily as a Multimedia Journalist/reporter, but in addition producing, anchoring and even presenting the climate. He could be reached at jack.hirsh@golf.com.