On Wednesday 19th June 2024 we set out to complete 72 holes of golf as part of The Big Golf Race. We took on this challenge to raise money and awareness for Prostate Cancer UK. It is an incredibly important cause as 1 in 8 men will get prostate cancer during their lifetime. G also partners with them through her day job to run a golf event, so has first-hand experience of working with the charity and seeing their excellent work. We decided not to venture far and to do the challenge right on our doorstep in St Andrews. Where better to attempt this challenge than The Home of Golf?

The Jubilee Course was the venue for our 3^rd round and is a 10-minute walk across The Old Course from the Eden. After Lunch, we made it over in plenty of time for our 14:16 Tee-Time. After our morning 36 holes, we were both struggling to find energy and it was a massive boost when G returned from the clubhouse with some coffee to help us through the round. We were very good at staying well fed and hydrated during the challenge as I’m sure we would not have been able to complete this without the proper nutrition.

The Jubilee course was first opened for play on the public holiday in June 1897 that marked the celebration of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. It was originally a 12-hole course designed for ladies and beginners, however, as it is such fine links land, it was quickly developed into an 18-hole layout. The course is sandwiched in between the coast and The New Course, which was built by Old Tom Morris 2 years earlier in 1895. In more recent history, The Jubilee has undergone major refinements by Donald Steel in 1988 to lengthen and toughen the layout. The Jubilee is now the hardest course in St Andrews due to its length and relative tightness compared to the others. On most other courses in St Andrews, one side of the course is open, meaning that it is very generous off the tee. The Jubilee is not like this due to the land restriction on all sides of the course. This means the fairways are narrower and gorse splits most of the holes.

The wind had also started to pick up by the start of the round, which meant we were in for a real challenge. The wind was blowing straight off the land, towards the sea. This meant that on this traditional layout, where the front-9 heads straight out and the back-9 heads straight back, almost every hole was playing across wind. The front-9 played with a left to right wind (the worst wind imaginable for a right-handed golfer) and the back-9 played with a right to left wind (we played nice draws all the way home).

A couple of early bogeys at the 2^nd and 5^th had us sitting at 2 over par for our 3rd round. We then found a nice rhythm for the remainder of the front-9. This culminated in a lovely birdie on the par-3 9^th hole as G converted a 20-foot putt after Cam hit a lovely 6 iron into the green. After a solid par on the 10^th, a couple of wayward tee-shots into the thick rough on the par 5 11th hole led to a bogey 6. The rough was incredibly thick and we did well to avoid it for much of this round. A quick recovery on the 12th hole, with a birdie 4, took us back to +1 for the round. On the notoriously difficult closing stretch, we would do well to hold on to this score. A single bogey on the 17^th and 5 pars from our last 6 holes, saw us finish at 74 (+2). 

Admittedly, we did struggle on this course and with keeping energy levels high. It is a draining course that requires buckets of focus and an energetic golf swing (which neither of us possessed at that time in the day). We also discussed how we rushed the closing holes as we were running out of time to make it to The Old Course for our last round. What was most impressive during this round, was our ability off the tee. On almost every hole, we had a decision to make about which tee-shot would be best to play as we were both keeping the ball in play well. Overall, 74 was a good score and saw us head to The Old Course -3 on the day and with a great opportunity to make a final push to finish the challenge.

To watch all of the action from round 3, watch the video below: