St Andrews Links

Recognised the world over as the 'Home of Golf', St Andrews Links has borne witness to over 600 years of golfing history. That the game evolved and developed into its final form here has never been in question: St Andrews is the home of the game's most influential ruling body, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, and it was here in 1764, when the 22-hole Old Course was reduced, that today's standard 18-hole round was established.

One golf course has now become seven, and many of golf's most dramatic moments, affecting the world's greatest players, have occurred here. The Links has played host to the game's greats, among them Allan Robertson and the Morrises in the nineteenth century, Bobby Jones and Jack Nicklaus in the twentieth, and Tiger Woods in the twenty-first, as well as those enthusiastic amateurs for whom the chance to play St Andrews' hallowed turf is a dream come true. As Jack Nicklaus remarked: 'If a golfer is to be remembered, he must win the title at St Andrews.'

The worldwide fame of St Andrews is the result of a unique 110-year-old partnership between the town's local government and the R&A, who between them have assured the Links' status by Act of Parliament, as public courses. This celebratory volume, the official history of golf's most important location, was written by Tom Jarrett, a caddie, journalist, golfer and author, who lived all his life in this historic town, and has been updated by Peter Mason, who was involved in managing the links throughout its most intensive - and controversial - phase of development.