MIND / ROYAL & ANCIENT M
Making the Shot Overcoming serious first-tee jitters as Captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club BY IAN PATTINSON
still “win” the Silver Club. How to ensure the Captain-elect would win the Silver Club? Easy. He is the only person entitled to enter the competition, thus assuring victory. Better still, the Captain-elect need only hit one golf shot to win, irrespective of where the ball goes. The “competition” for the Silver Club takes place on the last day of the club’s September meet- ing at exactly 0800 and is colloquially known as “the drive-in.” Typically, 200 or 300 people watch. Members and locals line the area between the Royal & Ancient clubhouse and the first tee of the Old Course. Just as the ball is struck, a ship’s cannon is fired. Yes, that is a C-A-N-N-O-N, positioned near the tee box, and it makes a very loud BANG!
The Captain of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club is the principal ambassador of the club both in St Andrews and glob- ally. Whatever else the Captain might do during the year ahead, the very first thought is always, What about the drive-in? ” To help manage this process, I code- named it: Making the Shot. All I had to do, on September 20, 2024, was to drive a golf ball into a fairway 125 yards wide. Surely anyone can do that. One year, in a strong left-to-right wind, a Captain’s ball unfortunately cleared the bound- ary fence on the right. More than one hooked drive has been saved on the left by the intervention of St Andrews’ caddies. Caddies? Didn’t I mention them? A
IN DECEMBER 2023, A SMALL grey envelope dropped through my letterbox – non-
descript, save for the crest of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, of which I had been a member for some years. Its matching grey letter asked if I would accept the invitation of the Past Captains to become Captain of the Club, starting in September 2024, a sin- gular honour. The Royal & Ancient, founded in 1754, originally appointed its Captain on playing ability alone. Members his- torically competed for a Silver Club, the winner of which became Captain for the next year. In 1804, however, the Past Captains decided that they should appoint the Captain but that he must
26 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
JULY/AUGUST 2025
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