Old Course Hotel: Room with a view

A handful of cracked slates on the roof of the Old Course Hotel at St Andrews provide damning evidence that golfers are determined to take the Tiger-line in a bid to record a career par at probably the world's toughest golf hole.

The hotel, built on the site of the town's former railway station in 1968, stands magnificently on the inside of the dogleg of the par-4 17th hole on the Old Course, which staged the 2010 Open Championship. And it stubbornly withstands, almost hourly, the mortar shells of golf balls slamming into it.

Indeed, only a couple of weeks ago I was standing on the hotel's fourth floor outdoor deck, pint in hand, admiring the spectacular sunset views across the St Andrews Links Trust's courses, when a ball, at the top of its fading trajectory crashed onto the roof above me and bounced down and around my feet in alarming fashion.

I picked Ping Rapture V2 Driver + Fairway Wood up . It was a brand I neither recognised nor preferred and looked grubby enough to have done a few dozen rounds already. Obviously, it was the kind of ball you would use for such a nervy tee shot and when you couldn't guarantee its direction.

Though I'd heard no cries of 'Fore!' I leaned over the parapet and when the golfers walked by 60 feet below tossed the ball back to them and cheekily suggested that it was clear why a Titleist Pro V1 would not perhaps be a ball they should consider!

I felt pretty privileged to be able to stay a night in this iconic hotel, as much a St Andrews landmark as the R&A Clubhouse and the red-brick Hamilton Hall, which stands behind the 18th green and which is currently being re-developed by the hotel's American owners, the Kohler Co.

Ping engineers have captured the hot face of the G10 and the solid sound and feel of the original Rapture and put it into the Rapture V2 Driver package.By expanding the height of the face and elongating clubhead dimensions, Ping has enlarged the sweet spot on the clubface and provided a very hot face, providing tremendous ball velocity regardless of player skill level.

And though I slept soundly, I didn't need the early morning alarm I'd requested. I was alerted by the dawn buzz of a dozen greenkeepers' mowers expertly tending the New, Jubilee and Eden courses I could see from the balcony of Room 230 above the 2nd and 17th fairways of the Old Course.

Sadly none of them were on my agenda for this trip but after a series of interviews and meetings at The Home of Golf, I was able to take advantage of a twilight round with a colleague at The Dukes course in nearby Craigtoun. It's a course that has seen substantial changes since five times Open champion Peter Thomson was invited to design the original in 1995. American Tim Liddy who has worked with and is influenced by distinguished designer Pete Dye, remodeled The Duke’s in June 2006.

Even a typical Scottish 'dreak,'of gloomy skies and fine rain didn't hamper the enjoyment of our round, though to lock up the clubhouse before my colleague had collected his car keys, mobile phone and change of clothes from his locker was a trifle premature!

However, as darkness fell and thanks to a phone call to the hotel from one of the members who had finished just ahead of us, an embarrassed and apologetic staff were soon back on the scene to allow him retrieve his belongings - the kind of service you'd expect from a golf club named 'Best in the UK' in the '2010 Golf club of the Year' awards.

It was only a minor blip in a visit that will live long in the memory and which also included a pint of exclusive Jigger ale at the white-walled Jigger Inn nestling in the shadow of the hotel - surely the ultimate 19th hole?

St Andrews is a place that should be on every golfer's 'Bucket List' of destinations to enjoy during their lifetime and if you can spoil yourself with a stay in the Old Course hotel and a round at The Dukes it would be an experience to treasure.

More read: http://www.golfsaleshop.com/goods-951-Ping+Rapture+V2+Driver+-+Fairway+Wood.html