“One Golfer At a Time” – The Old Course’s Humble Swilcan Bridge
This short, sturdy little stone bridge might be overlooked anywhere else, but because it’s at St. Andrews and the funnel which every golfing pilgrim or gladiator must pass, I call it “Golf’s Holiest Place.” It’s weather worn stones and gentle arch that were erected some 700-800 years ago (no one knows exactly when) has been the touchstone for every golfer fortunate enough to experience the Old Course. As such it has carried more history on its simple arches than any other in the game.
This iconic little bridge crosses the equally little meandering stream in what otherwise is the wide-open 18th fairway bordered by the town hard to the right and the equally open first fairway to the left. It is really no hazard on the 18th hole for golfers of any ilk, but is has to be crossed nonetheless. And the colorful Sam Snead who first imagined from an adjacent train that The Old Course was an “old abandoned golf course” later tapped danced across the bridge. At least, Snead was half right, the Old Course was old, but it’s never been abandoned. And then there was Lee Trevino. The Merry Mex called the Burn a “lousy creek,” but always stopped for a photo opportunity there.
When you see the Swilican Bridge in person it’s likely to be smaller than you might have imagined. And if you’re athletic enough, you might skip the bridge and leap over the Swilican Burn as British professional golfer Ian Poulter did or you might fashion a cartwheel as LPGA player Paula Creamer has.
Virtually almost every famous player in the game long before even Old Tom Morris (with the exception of Ben Hogan who never visited the course) has crossed this little bridge. Celebrities of all sorts and teams not only representing golf, but other sports have posed for pictures there. Even golfer’s ashes have been scattered by the Bridge. And then of course there are the sentimental slices of time captured forever of golfing heroes like Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus who ceremonially marked the end of their competitive days posing there.
May, 1929 - One of golf's greatest women players, Joyce Wethered, leads her great American challenger, Glenna Collett Vare, across the Swilican Burn Bridge in the Ladies' British Open Amateur Championship. Wethered won.
As St. Andrews and The Old Course evolved for golf, so too the Roman-designed Swilican Bridge was not built for golfer’s convenience, but rather to carry sheep, cattle, shepherds, and town folk from the town to the harbor area in the River Eden estuary. Now the humble little structure occupies a high point on the flat 18th hole that qualifies as the game’s most holy landmark on golf’s most historic amphitheater and it continues to escort the fortunate to their own historic golfing destinies one golfer at a time.
