Old Course, New World

THE OLD COURSE
St. Andrews; 011-44-1334-466666, standrews.org.uk. Yardage: 6,566. Par: 72. Architect: unknown (circa 1400). Greens Fees: $92-$132.
T&L Golf Rating: *****
Where do you start?Begin with the holy of holies and work up, maybe. Anachronism, tantalizing as a beautiful woman, heartbreak and ode to joy, the original ageless masterpiece. It's all been said. Even the knocks, like the one from former Ryder Cup captain Mark James, who claimed the first mistake at St. Andrews was "just turning up," perpetuate the myth. It's present from the start: Is there a more knee-knocking, nerve-tingling opening tee shot in golf?It's the easiest, widest fairway to hit. But as the starter calls your name, look around--there's almost always an audience hanging over a nearby fence--and you begin to understand the real game; not the bump-and-run game, nor the casual or the relaxed, but the stuff that twists the soul. Not bad for a routine 370-yard par four with a burn (the Swilken) in front of the green. Technical improvements in balls and clubs have rendered some of the ancient pathways to success a bit obsolete. Hit left and high into the greens on the way out and you can survive. But by the time you've negotiated the short but treacherous eleventh, the Coffins, Hell bunker, Principal's Nose, the hardest par four in golf (the Road Hole seventeenth) and made it over Granny Clark's Wynd splitting the 354-yard eighteenth, you may, as you walk up the fairway, the R&A clubhouse in front of you, realize you have just played the most memorable round of golf there is to be played anywhere. As 1964 Open winner Tony Lema said, "Anyone who doesn't fall in love with her has no imagination."

CRAIL, BALCOMIE LINKS
Crail; 011-44-1333-450960, crailgolfingsociety.co.uk. Yardage: 5,922. Par: 69. Architect: unknown (formally opened in 1895 by Old Tom Morris). Greens Fees: $44-$51.
T&L Golf Rating: ****
Lying eleven miles down the coast from St. Andrews, the Crail Golfing Society--the seventh oldest golf club in the world, dating back to 1786--plays on the Balcomie Links. This treeless layout rolls over tight fairways and slopes down to the beach. It's not a championship test but a beautiful, rewarding landscape offering respite (unless the wind howls) from its more illustrious neighbors. Although recently joined by a second eighteen (Craighead Links), stick with Balcomie.

THE DUKE'S COURSE
St. Andrews; 011-44-1334-474371, oldcoursehotel.co.uk. Yardage: 7,271. Par: 72. Architect: Peter Thomson, 1995. Greens Fees: $88- $110; $73 for Old Course Hotel guests.
T&L Golf Rating: *** 1/2
Opened for play in 1995, the Duke's was the first new championship course to be built in St. Andrews for over eighty-five years. Designed by Australian Peter Thomson, a five-time Open champion, the Duke's is located two miles inland at Craigtoun Park. The prestigious Old Course Hotel felt it needed to guarantee its guests golf--and owning a course was the route it chose. Thomson's design winds through varied natural parkland of dense wood, open wetland, gorse and heather; at 7,271 yards it is the longest parkland golf course in Scotland. Again, it is no substitute for the raison d'être of being in St. Andrews (namely, the Old Course), but if you've been done in by the iniquity of neighboring links, here is a place where normality can begin to resume. The balcony of the swish clubhouse has superb views of the whole of St. Andrews proper and the sea beyond.

ST. ANDREWS BAY, DEVLIN AND TORRANCE COURSES
St. Andrews; 011-44-1334-837000, standrewsbay.com. Yardage: 7,049 (Devlin course); 7,037 (Torrance course). Par: 73 (Devlin); 72 (Torrance). Architects: Gene Sarazen and Bruce Devlin, 2002 (Devlin); Gene Sarazen and Sam Torrance, 2001 (Torrance). Greens Fees: $95; $66 for St. Andrews Bay Resort guests.
T&L Golf Rating: *** 1/2
Uneasy locals initially claimed the entire complex was on a scale outside the traditions of St. Andrews. But despite efforts to fight the development through every stage of the Scottish courts, the two eighteen-hole championship courses themselves are disappointing few. The American owner, Dr. Don Panoz (owner of Ch‰teau ƒlan in Georgia), hired his friend, the legendary Gene Sarazen, for preliminary advice on the site. Following Sarazen's death, the course names transferred to this year's Ryder Cup captain, Sam Torrance, and the Australian Bruce Devlin. All the elements of tough windblown links golf are here, but the courses aren't nature trails, offering instead high-quality creations that beautifully sustain an illusion. The Torrance course lacks the overall power of Kingsbarns. But when the closing drama begins--especially on the par-four fourteenth, down to the cliff edge of the bay, followed by a cracking par three and the even better par-four seventeenth, which gloriously utilizes a cliff-edge green and deep ravine to deliver a second shot that will turn a scorecard into a scarecard--you appreciate how well the territory has been used. The Devlin only recently opened and is by every indication the tougher of the two. Breaking down the resistance of traditionalists is no easy task, but speaking quietly to some early denigrators, St. Andrews Bay is amassing whispering admirers among the cognoscenti.