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Living Golf
LIVING GOLF on the Road
Aired August 10, 2014 - 12:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
SHANE O'DONOGHUE, CNN HOST (voice-over): Golf was born by the sea. It originated here on the east coast of Scotland on swaths of undulating sandy
terrain that were unfit for farming. Land with no use, otherwise known as links land.
Out of these lands were born courses that have stood the test of time.
This month we're going on a golfing pilgrimage, a must for any golf enthusiast because we're taking a road trip to some of the great links
courses here in Scotland.
We have stories to tell and people to see, those who made history.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): There was a walk down the 18th hole knowing that full (INAUDIBLE) open. It doesn't get much better than that.
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): -- those who know their history.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): You have to go all the way back to Old Tom Morris. He made it possible to make a living. He's still the father of
professional golf.
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): -- and those who want to etch their names into history.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Links golf is definitely something I love to play and hopefully I can have a change of holding the player jug.
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): Plus we'll get the links lowdown from one of the best caddies in the game.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): I'm going to be thinking about the questions the boss is going to ask me on this tee when I'm still on that
green.
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): As that relief, as with any road trip, we'll take in the weird and wonderful.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Primary function is for golf, which is unique to any golf club.
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O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): Welcome to LIVING GOLF on the road.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): First up, we're better than where the game first started. No, we're not talking about St. Andrews here, but Leith Links
here in Edinburgh.
This is where the earliest mention of links golf originates from, back in 1453 and it was here in 1744 that the original rules of golf were
established.
Now they no longer play golf around here, but because of what happened on this site all of those years ago, there is now an abundance of rich golfing
links and golfing history in this incredible country.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): There's over 600 golf courses in Scotland and one you must visit is Prestwick on the west coast. This is where the first 11
Open championships were held and it still retains many of its original features.
As popularity in the game grew, Prestwick's title layout became too small to host an Open, the last being played here in 1925.
Since Prestwick, six other Scottish links courses have hosted the Open chairmanship with St. Andrews holding the most at 28.
While winning the open anywhere in the British Isles is special, there is a certain something in lifting the claret jug in Scotland.
James Braid tops the list, capturing all five of his Open titles here. Braid is closely followed by Jersey's Harry Vardon and America's Tom
Watson, both winning four Opens north of the border.
Mr. Nick Faldo won all three of his titles in Scotland. His 1992 victory at Muirfield was the last time an English man has lifted the trophy.
Faldo's first victory also came at Muirfield with a completely redesigned swing, his gritty 18 pars in the final round are still remembered today.
No one truly conquers links golf, but Nick came as close as anyone on that cool, misty day 27 years ago.
NICK FALDO, PRO GOLFER (voice-over): (INAUDIBLE) made that trip to Muirfield, I go, you're good luck just making a putt on the first. It's
about 12 holes there on that day that were really bogey holes. So to turn out pars is pretty cool.
JOHN HUGGAN, JOURNALIST (voice-over): Nick was an artist. He wasn't a scientist. He had a lot of his reputation comes from the fact that he was
(INAUDIBLE). But he wasn't. Nick Faldo had played so many different kinds of shots, (INAUDIBLE) very subtle.
FALDO (voice-over): It's all about your entry. So you could be, whoever, 165 yards. But you know darn well that's not 700 because that's not
(INAUDIBLE) 6, maybe it might ought to be a 5 or something. So you've got to work out what club will hit it on that trajectory consistently.
HUGGAN (voice-over): It's not just about hitting the ball through the air and landing and stopping. Every shot contains the ground aspect of it.
And Nick Faldo saw the ground aspect, I think, better than almost anybody about from (INAUDIBLE).
FALDO (voice-over): If you've hit a golf ball and it's landed on a slope and it's gone kicking A, you can't say that was bad luck. You have to go
to the facts. Well, my ball landed on a 45-degree angle and, guess what, tough. Tough when it happens more than once.
(LAUGHTER)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): We're now heading north to a little gem of a course, Moray Golf Club. It's one of the most beautiful in all of Scotland
and designed by four-time Open winner Old Tom Morris.
HUGGAN: He was one of the first professional golfers. He was a course designer. He was a club maker. He was a green keeper. He was one of the
greatest players that's every played. So his influence is not to underestimate it.
And if you've been in all those five threads that we just mentioned, anybody who's making a living from golf in one of those areas can trace it
back to Old Tom Morris.
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): Now there is something else rather special about Moray Golf Club. It's right in the heart of distillery country. And from
the turn of the last century, they aged their own whiskey onsite.
O'DONOGHUE: Reading one of the historical accounts of club, it seems that a lot of members became overcome by the fumes of the whiskey production,
which led to it being stopped.
JOHN ELLWOOD, CLUB CAPTAIN: I'm told, Shane, they still get back upstairs on occasion after bottling the whiskey, because having been overcome by the
fumes, I have the feeling they weren't drinking it, but just they were overcome and having to stop that practice and moved it elsewhere.
O'DONOGHUE: And do you think it had an effect on the golf and the standard here in Moray?
ELLWOOD: I think it's probably improved, as I said, you might feel better anyway.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): Still to come, expert advice from a man crucial to getting around a links course, the trusted caddie.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): You have to (INAUDIBLE) if you switch off in 20 seconds, you're making errors and that one shot end of the week might
be that shot. Don't wish to call that (INAUDIBLE).
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): Next stop is a must for anyone who likes their golf history and geography in equal measure.
Cruden Bay offers incredible views as it hugs the rugged Scottish coastline. This is artisan working class golf at its best. But back in
the day, Cruden Bay was much more glamorous. With the opening of a grand hotel alongside the course in 1899, this was the place where Britain's high
society mixed with the best players in the game, a forerunner to today's lavish corporate filled tournaments, if you will.
The hotel is long gone. But it's still an exceptional place to play a round or two.
Back on the road and to another fine example of Scottish links and the venue for the recent Scottish Open, Royal Aberdeen, the sixth oldest golf
club in the world.
As the last warm-up tournaments before the Open championship, it always attracted a stellar cast. Adapting to links courses is a huge challenge, a
skill that some players never get to grips with, but others grab with both hands.
JUSTIN ROSE: I've always said that if I was to choose one golf course the rest of my life to play, it would be a links golf course, because each day
you get a completely different area. It could be a 3-iron par 3 one day and a 9-iron par 3 the next day. So you know, the course plays very
different in different conditions. And that's what -- that's the charm of it really.
LUKE DONALD (voice-over): Different turf, compact, no trees, low wind.
RICKIE FOWLER (voice-over): Oh, I'll start with what I don't like. I hate the bunkers.
IAN POULTER (voice-over): He asks for every single shot in the back. And you have to be able to execute that perfectly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Right by the sea, ocean, you know, tough conditions, very different to what we play usually.
FOWLER (voice-over): There's so much variety. There's so many options. I feel like you have to use your imagination and (INAUDIBLE) shots.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): Now as the famous saying goes behind every great man there's a great caddy. But when you've been the bag man for Lee
Westwood, Sergio Garcia, Darren Clarke, the late great Seve Ballesteros and briefly Tiger Woods, you might have a clue or two about the secrets to play
on links courses.
(INAUDIBLE), what is the special attraction of links golf?
BILLY FOSTER, CADDIE: To me, golf is somewhat boring at times. The guys these days, drivers 300 years, caddie through a minimum runs in the fairway
and stop within five or 10 yards. And then a 6 iron over water, it lands on the green. Ball doesn't move in the air anymore, just lands on the
green, stops within 10 feet.
Links golf, the contours, the elements, it's about avoiding bunkers, you know, bunkers on links courses are great for some better then to keep out
the wind, building sand castles. But they ain't any good for golf.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): Now you talk about your job. A lot of it is (INAUDIBLE). A lot of it is serious preparation.
FOSTER (voice-over): Yes. We stood on the second tee here at the Royal Aberdeen and there's the first green. And I'm going to be thinking about
the questions the boss is going to ask me on this tee when I'm sitting on that green. So when I come to the tee, they see me ask the question I've
got the answer. You're under the ultimate pressure here. And sometimes you crumble under pressure. So you have to have the answers in your head
before you step on this tee.
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): (INAUDIBLE) American courses, very flat. They're sculpted. As a lot of modern courses are around the world, but links full
of slopes, full of different contours.
What kind of information do you have on your book as an example?
FOSTER (voice-over): Well, to give you an example, this is the 16th hole this week. And I like playing for this spot here, the yellow spot here,
which is 210 yards off the tee. It's fairly flat ground.
But once you got through the saddle, the fairway is literally 15 yards wide. But the contours over the top run off both sides and then you're
going to be in knee-high air. Then might moving it forward, you're got to try and just get it back to the fairway. So it's not worth the risk.
You've got to botch cleven (ph) and plan one step ahead.
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): But you've got to give him the right numbers?
FOSTER (voice-over): Well, you make one mistake, it leads to another mistake, because you're out of position and you're leaving him standing
impossible spots. You know, it's all about eliminating your big numbers.
But you have to jell well as a team and think smartly together, because if you switch off at 20 seconds, you're both making errors and that leads to
double bogeys and that one shot end of the week might be that shot. (INAUDIBLE).
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): Now Seve, obviously one of the greatest shot makers of all time, but what was it about this terrain that really got his
blood going?
FOSTER (voice-over): Well, as it's well documented, Seve was brought up with one club. And he had to learn to play golf with one club. When he
had to play all sorts of shots, even bunker shots, chicken runs, he'd have to drive with a 5 iron and putt with a 5 iron, chip with a 5 iron. And
that's where he got his gift of seeing different shots.
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): But tell us how many Opens you've been to.
FOSTER: That'll be my 31st as a caddy, I leave.
It's always a challenge (INAUDIBLE).
(MUSIC PLAYING)
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): Speaking of Seve, we find out more about the great man after the break as our golfing journey reaches its final
destination at the home of golf.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): On my golfing pilgrimage around Scotland, I found the first home of links golf in Leith, tasted whiskey in Moray, lived the
high life in Cruden Bay and received words of wisdom from Billy Foster at Royal Aberdeen.
Now we're en route to Lundin Golf Course in Fife.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): Now Lundin is another Old Tom Morris course, but it was redesigned in 1909 by perhaps the most famous golf architect of them
all, five-times Open champion James Braid.
Braid's design had to work around rail tracks running lengthways through the middle of the course. The railroad would take golfers from Edinburgh
to St. Andrews. It was abandoned in the 1960s but many of its features remain in play. And it's because of these tracks that Lundin holds an
unfortunate accolade.
ALAN STUART, CLUB HISTORIAN (voice-over): Also one tragedy here in Lundin in 1850, golfers crossed the railroad line between the 5th and 6th holes.
I think his name was Mr. Wallace (ph). He was hit by a light engine crossing the railway line and killed. And one of the more unusual golfing
fatalities is actually recorded in "The Golfer's Handbook."
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): As I'm here, must hit a few shots.
STUART (voice-over): (INAUDIBLE).
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): (INAUDIBLE).
STUART (voice-over): Good shot!
(MUSIC PLAYING)
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): You never have to go too far to find another great course with a history to match. Just seven miles east of Lundin is
Braid's home course, a place where the Scot won his first tournament, aged 8. And for he must have had much for his inspiration.
This is Elie Golf Club. And what makes this place extra special is this, on the first tee, a periscope from a submarine.
There's nothing like this in any other course in the world, is there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nowhere else. This is the only one.
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): That's because it's a blind tee shot, you need to be able to see if it's clear ahead for those to tee off.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's correct. Yes, sir.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
Speaking of viewing golf from a slightly different angle, one man who's spent his whole career shooting the game is renowned photographer David
Cannon.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): He's traveled the world, but it's amongst the sand dunes of Scotland where he feels most at home. We met him on location
to find out why.
DAVID CANNON, PHOTOGRAPHER (voice-over): The colors are so good for -- in links golf. When you get this amazing contrast from the green fairways,
greens to this wonderful shades of golden in the rough. Because when the tall grass grows and the light by the sea is stronger as anyway. And
you've also got a lot more natural undulations by the sea generally.
The seaside's (INAUDIBLE). They're (INAUDIBLE) make great pictures and you often get players being -- getting (INAUDIBLE) shower of sand.
The other thing I love is the skies. The blue is so blue. It's the elements. You're far more in the elements by the seaside than you are on a
park land tree-lined course.
The amazing thing about links golf as well is it's been around for so long it's where it was -- golf was first played (INAUDIBLE) courses and
literally just almost the same as when they were laid down. Just imagine (INAUDIBLE) in their long coats and tweed jackets and (INAUDIBLE).
I've just literally been the northwest of Scotland and it's like it hasn't changed in 100 years or 150 years that those courses have been there.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): So my journey is nearly at an end. But of course, there's only one place to finish. In 2015, the Open returns here.
It is, of course, at St. Andrews, the most celebrated venue in all of golf, the home of golf.
The iconic course has made it onto the big screen this summer, with the story of golfing great Seve Ballesteros, who sadly died in 2011.
Seve's last trip to St. Andrews was in 2007, when his most celebrated moment came some 23 years earlier. The film focuses on Ballesteros'
formative years.
Growing up in a working class family in northern Spain, Seve had to learn the game with a stick as a club and a pebble as a ball. Perhaps this
impoverished start gave him a better understanding of what the game, its history and links golf truly meant.
With a game to match his good looks, Seve took the Open by storm. He finished tied second as a 19-year old in 1976. Our love affair with the
Spaniard had begun.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Do you have a girlfriend?
SEVERIANO BALLESTEROS, PRO GOLFER: No. Many. I have many. But no steady one.
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): Many thought it would be impossible to play the Ballesteros on film but Jose Luis Gutierrez has won critical acclaim for
his portrayal of the young Seve.
STEPHEN EVANS, FILM PRODUCER: Well, it's (INAUDIBLE) the greatest game every played and the movie's there. You don't have a level of realism. It
doesn't have to have a level of realism. From our point of view, we need a level of realism because people are moving to other parts of Ballesteros'
archive footage, which are clearly real.
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): Although winning the Open in '79 and '88 and two Masters titles in '80 and '83, it was his victory at St. Andrews in 1984
that proved the most celebrated moment of his career.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This for three. And he's just (INAUDIBLE).
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): If ever the home of golf could be overshadowed, this was the time.
CANNON (voice-over): That moment is a -- one of the best moments in golf for me. And the role went on so long, his actual moment of joy as he
thumbed through it and great sort of punch when he holed the putt and then he stood there.
I actually had enough foresight to take out half a roll of film that I had in my camera and put a fresh roll of film in for that putt just because I
just had an inkling and little did I know that I would use all 36 frames and turn 'round and see other photographers who hadn't had enough film in
their camera and had missed that really -- the famous one, when he's looking up, which he looked straight at me for that. And it was a
brilliant moment, that.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): What a fitting way to end with the incomparable Severiano Ballesteros, who won that iconic Open here in 1984.
Well, I hope you've enjoyed our whistle stop tour. This is the perfect place to finish, at the home of golf. And I think you'll have seen that
Scotland is much more than just the trophy courses. There are so many hidden gems up and down the coast and so much history in every nook and
cranny. Scotland is a must-see destination for any golfer.
Until next time on LIVING GOLF, bye-bye.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
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