9 Days in Scotland: Day 3: St. Andrews

It was still dark out when the alarm went off…. Must have been 12:30am when Nate rolled out of bed and quietly slipped out into the night. He was off to take his place outside St. Andrew’s Old Pavillion in hopes of obtaining a spot on the courses daily tee times…. with a bit of luck, later today he could be playing this iconic course.

Before we departed for this trip we did everything we could to figure out HOW to get him on that course… all the lotteries, applications and any chance we had to schedule a tee time was not available to us. It wasn’t until a few online sources talked about waiting outside the Old Pavilion in hopes of filling any cancellations or no shows that might pop up through out the day…. but you had to be patient, you had to be willing to wait indefinitely and you had to get there EARLY!! We were here in Scotland …at St Andrews…. he HAD to give this a go.

I was up and ready at 7:00am. Nate told me to sleep in, he’d text me if he was playing, but I wanted to be sure I ready when he called. When I did hear from him it was to give me an update… apparently 1:00am was not early enough …. there were others waiting outside when he arrived, the first ones I believe arrived before 10pm, all waiting for The Old Pavilion to open at 7:30am the next morning.

Nate was 10th in line for a possible shot… he told me to relax and enjoy my day, he’d call if things changed.

I had no plans other then waiting to see how it went for him and joining him to walk and photo his play… I KNEW in my bones he would get his chances! He had to, and I was going to wait with him, even if it took all day!

I went off in search of coffee, it was a cold October morning and he’d been out in the cold for over 6 hours… I picked up a few extra cups to offer to those in line with him. When I arrived the Old Pavilion had just opened and all those cold souls filed in to warm up and set up shop and continued to wait… you could tell they ALL were in it for the long haul!

There was coffee and breakfast sandwiches for sale, so we ate breakfast, plugged in our iPads and phones to charge and settled in. We watched foursomes as they teed off the 1st hole just outside our vantage point, listening as names we’re yelled out now and again off the waitlist… each one closing the gap between Nate and that tee box!!

A few hours later, around 9:30 or 10… Nate decided to go out and do a little practice putting on the small green between the Pavilion and the first hole.

Not long after he was out there, all of a sudden my ears perked up to “Nate”… I bolted out of my seat, ran out to him and told him he was up! He stood still for a bit, I could see him processing what I had just said… and then it clicked!! We both went in go mode… no time to waste!! He went to check in, I grabbed all our stuff and ran it to the car, also picking up his rain gear just in case… but the time I got back I had just missed him teeing off the first hole… ugh!!!! I quickly caught up to him as he began his walk down the green to his ball.

He was so quiet … like his mind was saying “was this really happening??” …I watched as the shock turned to joy, and utter happiness sank in!!! …. I just knew he would get to play!!

The round was so very enjoyable!!! Not only was the weather perfect, but Nate’s foursome was made up of guys he had waited all night in line with, one before him in the queue and two after.

This four some of strangers all shared the desire to play this course and shared in the experience that got them to where they were. There was an unspoken camaraderie as these four walked down the 1st fairway that finished in a friendship on the 18th green.

After the round we all did what anyone running on no sleep and reeling from adrenaline would do… we headed to the 19th hole… the famous Jigger Inn.

Again it was a beautiful day and we scored a table outside. It was all smiles and laughter as we all relived the days events… we were even joined by more guys who waited all night in the queue and who played earlier in the day (well one of them didn’t make it after the whiskey he was drinking to keep warm took him to bed and out of the queue) … which worked well in our foursomes favor!!!

That was about it for our first full day in St. Andrews! The sun was beginning to set when we left the Jigger Inn, we had been celebrating the days events for quite awhile! Realizing we were hungry, we walked up the street towards our hotel, making our way back to Playfair’s! Why not do it again!!!