SCOTLAND
Mid Scotland & Fife Region
ST ANDREWS ~ Royal & Ancient Golf Club (Fife, SCO)
The "Culture Vulture" Tour
Wednesday September 17th, 2008
To the uninitiated, St Andrews is a town and former royal burgh on the east coast of Fife, Scotland. The town is named after Saint Andrew the Apostle, has a population of about 18,000 and stands on the North Sea coast between Edinburgh and Dundee. It is also the home of Scotland's oldest university - the University of St Andrews, which was founded in 1413.
From mediaeval times until The Reformation, St Andrews was the ecclesiastical capital of Scotland: its bishop being the primus of the Scottish church.
To us, with even a microcosmic interest in sport, St Andrews is simply the "home of golf" as the Royal & Ancient Golf Club, founded in 1754, exercises legislative authority over the game worldwide (except in the United States and Mexico), and also because the famous links (acquired by the town in 1894) is the most frequent venue for The Open Championship, the oldest of golf's four major championships, which includes the Masters, the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship.
