Inside the R&A Clubhouse

There is no question one of the most iconic places for photographs in all of golf is the 1st tee of the Old Course at St. Andrews. How many hundreds of pictures have we seen like these?

Whether it's Tiger hoisting the Claret Jug or a younger, decidedly thinner me posing with my friend Reuven Katz before I played my first round ever on the world's oldest course. (In those days, I was merely stocky.)

But have you ever thought about what the view was like looking out from those bow windows on the ground floor of the R&A clubhouse? Well, here's what Max and Jack Elgart saw during their H&B golf trip to St. Andrews.

The common assumption is that this room is a dining room, a conclusion that is reinforced by the tables and chairs which surround the Elgarts. In further support of the assumption is the custom of R&A members to take their pre lunch or dinner drinks in the room in full view of anyone passing by on the outside of the clubhouse.

But a passerby is just as likely to see an octogenarian in his underwear or less as the room is actually the original locker room for the club and still used for that purpose by the club's most senior members. My guess is when one reaches 80 he really doesn't care who sees him in his birthday suit and most of us don't really care to see him so privacy isn't really an issue. A gaze averted most every time.

The room as seen from the outside in the small hours of the morning. Note the lockers lining the walls.

But what about the balcony or whatever just above the locker room windows? It's a porch accessed through the Secretary's Office. When that privilege was granted to a group who are part of the H&B PGA Professionals Travel Program, they took this picture of the view from up top.

And where exactly is the dining room actually located? On the top floor just to the right of those very same PGA professionals enjoying a view they'll never forget.

Note to the reader: This post was originally penned in 2013 by our Founder & Chairman, Sam Baker.