Old Course Joins Twitter, Gets #savetheoldcourse Hashtag, UK Press Slowly Begins To Notice

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I know it's a bigger story to those outside the United States. After all, this is the same town that approved putting up a chest of drawers (Longhurst) next to the Road hole. So expecting architectural sensitivity may be a lot to ask.

Still, it's nice to see the altering of the Old Course at St. Andrews getting attention from some press and in social media.

The Daily Mail's Derek Lawrenson writes that "It has to be said, some of the planned amendments sound positively radical," then declares, "Let’s go easy on the outrage, however, and have a little faith in the two bodies in question. After all, they have more to lose than anyone."

Got that?

The Scotsman's Martin Dempster acknowledges Tom Doak's petition to stop the work.

It's hard to tell what Philip Reid of the Irish Times thinks, but to anyone who knows the game and the R&A's public stance on scoring, this is an indictment:

...it would seem the RA, governors of the game and responsible for staging the British Open, aren’t immune from phobias of their own and the fear of low scoring – whisper it, the possibility of a 59 – is seen as the main reasoning behind plans to toughen up the Old Course in time for its next hosting of golf’s oldest Major championship.

Tom Dunne tweeted the scoring averages from the last Open Championship at St. Andrews where 73.0665 was the number for the week. As for key holes receiving new bunkers to "stiffen the defences" as the R&A's Peter Dawson put it, the second, fourth and sixth all average well over par. The Road played the toughest for the week at 4.6631 yet is already under attack just days after the announced changes.

Meanwhile, The Old Course is on Twitter now. Give her a follow.

There is a nice list of Tweets developing with the #savetheoldcourse hastag.

On change.org, Emile Bonfiglio has started a petition to halt the work.

UK Sports Minister Says Open Championship Should Only Be Played At Non-Discriminatory Clubs

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Golf365 quotes a Sunday Times story (not available online) in which UK Sports minister Hugh Robertson thinks clubs like 2013 Open Championship host Muirfield The Honourable Company Of Edinburgh Golfers should not be part of the rota because "it is increasingly anachronistic not to allow women to be members."

"The defence of the Royal and Ancient is that it is a private club and so has the right to do what it wants.

"That is legally correct and I have no quarrel when it is acting as a private club. However, I believe that when a private club fulfils a public function, such as staging a major event, then there is a different slant."

And there was an interesting delineation from Muirfield secretary Alastair Brown, which I puts the ball back in the R&A's court:

"It's not our decision where the Open is. It's the decision of the R&A - it's their competition and they ask us.

"Augusta is a totally different situation. They own their event."

Translation: back at you R&A!