© Getty Images Sport – Warren Little / Staff
The rain chaos in Scotland shows no signs of abating. The 2023 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship is forced to stop for the second consecutive day due to adverse weather conditions. As a consequence, the third round, which will take place tomorrow, will also be the last and will have a substantial peculiarity: it will be held on three routes.
Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, conditions
This is because, obviously, continuing until Tuesday has been deemed impractical and, at the same time, it is still at the point where all players have yet to complete one of Kingsbarns, Carnoustie and the Old Course at St.
Andrews. However, spectators will only be able to access the latter field. The hope, at this point, is that Monday will allow the players to complete what is undoubtedly an enormous effort considering the situation. Which, moreover, means that there will not necessarily be cuts, given that they should have been carried out yesterday.
At the moment the leadership belongs to Matt Fitzpatrick: the Englishman leads with a score of -13 ahead of the Spaniard Nacho Elvira and the Scot Grant Forrest with -12. 40th at -4 Guido Migliozzi, 86th at -1 Renato Paratore.
The Old Course at St Andrews is one of the oldest golf courses in the world and probably the oldest in Scotland. The Old Course is a public course located in the village of St Andrews, in the county of Fife, 16 km southeast of the city of Dundee and 50 km northeast of the city of Edinburgh.
The course is run by an entity called “The St Andrews Links Trust” under the supervision of the Scottish Parliament. The clubhouse of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews (R&A) is located next to the tee box on hole 1, and although it seems that the course belongs to the club, the truth is that there are several clubs that enjoy the privilege of playing on that field.
There is no record of when golf began to be played on the land that today forms the Old Course. The first written document is a license granted in 1552 that allowed the community to raise rabbits on the links and “play golf, soccer, schuteing…
and other types of pastimes.” The first record of the game of golf on the Old Course dates back to 1574, which would make this course the fifth oldest links located in Scotland.[1] Archived 25 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
However, documents dating to the reign of James IV of Scotland show that he purchased land in St. Andrews in 1506, just four years after he acquired other land in Perth, which would indicate that the Old Course is significantly older than written evidence demonstrates[2] Archived December 30, 2006 at the Wayback Machine.
The course has evolved over time. Originally, it was played on the same terrain that had a small number of holes. As interest in this sport increased, the course was expanded through a second course, as well as the size of the greens and two holes were shortened.
