One of the greatest mysteries in the game of golf is how the most historic and lauded golf course in the world came to be. Believed to be shaped predominately by the forces of nature, people have been playing golf at St. Andrews since the 15thcentury with relatively minor tweaks coming hundreds of years later from the likes of Old Tom Morris and others.[1] The question is how could a golf course that has garnered unequaled praise from the greatest names in golf have come about without an architect? Essentially, the greatest golf course in history–at least from a course design standpoint–happened by accident. Or did it?
The GOAT?
One thing we do know is that the world’s greatest golfers have often travelled through the same progression of thought concerning that most ancient, mysterious, and magisterial piece of land on the Scottish coastline, known simply as The Old Course. Apathy and frustration typically yield to awe and reverence. For example, at the 1921 British Open hosted at St. Andrews, a young–and at the time majorless–Bobby Jones fumed over the absurdly simple and frustrating layout of the course. The Old Course punched back, imprisoning Jones in a suffocating pot bunker for several rage-inducing hacks causing him to tear up his score card and walk off the course in shame.[2] Jones returned six years later to win the British Open at St. Andrews in 1927. In his acceptance speech he gushed, “I had rather win a championship at St. Andrews than anything else that could happen to me…If I never win anything again, I am satisfied.”[3]
What could turn rage to respect; ridicule to reverence? For Jones, it was a deepened awareness of the seemingly endless strategic possibilities, hidden dangers, and ingenious intricacies of the golf course he had come to regard as the greatest in the world.
Appreciation for the Old Course isn’t restricted to the royal and ancient of the game. Recently, Rory McIlroy shared that his valuation of the home of golf wasn’t great early on in his career, but the more times he played the course his appreciation for it grew so that now he calls it his favorite course. The big cat himself, Tiger Woods, admitted that St. Andrews is his top pick and the emotion he showed during the walk up the 18th in 2021 at the British Open revealed that only the hallowed grounds of the Old Course could subdue his ferocious roar.
It’s also significant that the greatest names in course design have declared St. Andrews to be without equal. Alistair Mackenzie, designer of Cypress Point, Augusta National, and many other stalwarts of the game, heralded St. Andrews as unparalleled and unsurpassable.[4] The canonized Donald Ross, and King Midas himself, Tom Doak, spent time caddying at St. Andrews to train their eye for design at golf’s most hallowed grounds.
What about St. Andrews could warrant such unparalleled praise? The natural beauty and the history certainly play a part, but the real riches of the Old Course lay in its genius design. The placement of the hazards, the undulations of the fairways and greens, and the shape of the holes make the course a mental challenge like no other. Each hole challenges the golfer to constantly use their mind and creativity in a battle of wit. Alister Mackenzie concluded, “I doubt if even in a hundred years’ time a course will be made which has such interesting strategic problems and which creates such enduring and increasing pleasurable excitement and varied shots.”[5] People have played the Old Course for decades only to discover new ways to play a hole or a subtle slope that has major strategic implications. There is simply no course like it.
Intelligent Course Design
The million-dollar question is, where did this ancient masterpiece come from? What mastermind has emerged to take credit for such an immaculate golf course? Here is the baffling answer: no one knows.
Alister Mackenzie agrees with the general consensus that the course was formed by nature.[6] Wind and rain formed undulations, collected sand into bunkers, and evened out the plateaus which became the greens. Eventually someone who had perhaps never seen a golf course planted the holes on plateaus where they could be easily seen. Centuries later, the greens are smoother and the routing of some holes are slightly different, but the hazards have essentially remained in the same place and the slopes cast the same shadows as when Henry VIII was on the throne. Yet, the crown for the creator of this magnum opus has yet to be placed on anyone’s head. Are we to believe that the blueprints of Augusta and Pine Valley reveal a signature, while the matchless cathedral of golf has none? Is St. Andrews the result of blind chance or a perfect gift from above? Is it shaped by nature or an intelligent course designer whose ways are not our ways?
Since I believe in the sovereignty of God, I believe he does nothing by accident. Though all gifts ultimately come from his hand, we can say without exaggeration that St. Andrews is a course designed by God.
Life Lesson
But perhaps St. Andrews teaches us more about life than it does about golf. If there is an experience that all people can relate to it is the anger toward difficult and seemingly purposeless circumstances in our life. The view from most tee boxes at the Old Course reveals a seemingly bland, uninteresting view, but a closer look reveals riches untold. Could this be the lesson St. Andrews has for all who have the privilege of signing its tee sheet? Could the whisper of wisdom from the ancient Swilcan Bridge be that though our circumstances look purposeless, uninteresting, dark, there could be meaning and purpose behind it all from the hand of a mysterious architect?
There is a story of a man who climbed a great mountain and was rewarded with an unspeakable view. When he returned from his journey he was asked to describe what he saw. The man responded, “Oh I couldn’t possibly do that. I could write a poem about it, I could dance and sing of it, but I couldn’t describe it.” Maybe a description isn’t what St. Andrews deserves but rather a poem that speaks of one who works in mysterious ways:
Deep in unsearchable mines
Of never-failing skill
He treasures up His bright designs
And works His sovereign will
[1] “The Old Course, St Andrews,” Rules History (blog), accessed March 6, 2025, http://www.ruleshistory.com/oldcourse.html.
[2] Mark Frost, The Grand Slam: Bobby Jones, America, and the Story of Golf (New York: Hyperion, 2004). 147.
[3] Frost. 294.
[4] Alister Mackenzie, The Spirit of St. Andrews (Chelsea, Mich.: Sleeping Bear Press, 1995). 142.
[5] Mackenzie. 6.
[6] Mackenzie. 88.
Mike McGregor
Mike McGregor (MDiv, Reformed Theological Seminary) is Director of College Ministry at First Baptist Church in Durham, N.C. You can follow him on Twitter at @m5mcgregor.
