By Joel Beall
After two months of closure, the Home of Golf is back.

In a letter to its membership, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews announced it is re-opening four of its links on May 29. All courses in Scotland have been closed due to the coronavirus pandemic since March 23.

The Old Course, New Course, Eden and Balgove will be in the first wave of openings, with the Eden turned into two separate nine-hole layouts to encourage nine-hole rounds. The Jubilee, Strathtyrum and Castle will not open at this stage but “will re-open in a phased manner in the future. The St Andrews Links will advise 2 days before these courses open,” according to Ford Horsfield, head of golf services.

It will not be business as usual. The letter states that “at this time all courses are available for Yearly Ticket holders only.” Tee times will be made in 12-minute intervals with two golfers per tee time.

There will also be no walk-ups, so if necessary there is a track and trace record of who is on the links.

Last week Scottish Golf confirmed that May 29 would be the earliest return date for Scottish courses. However, a number of courses, especially those in Edinburgh, are targeting June 8 for re-opening.

As of May 26, there are over 15,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Scotland, according to the NHS Board.

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By Ryan Herrington
The coronavirus has caused organisations around the world to take unusual steps to press on amid the pandemic. Count the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews among them.

On Wednesday, the club announced that Clive Edginton will continue as its captain for 2020-’21, the 68-year-old Englishman having been re-nominated by past captains of the club. Edginton, who started serving in the role last September, will be only the second person to serve two successive terms as captain since the club’s founding in 1754. The one previous man to do so was Major John Murray Belshes in 1835-’36.

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“It is an honour to be Captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, and I feel very privileged to be asked to continue in the role,” Edginton said in a release. “This is a difficult time for all of us in the midst of this pandemic but I am happy that I can continue to serve the Club as we look positively to the future.”

Edginton has been a member of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club since 1997. He was on the Rules of Golf Committee from 2000 to 2004, and served as deputy chairman from 2002 to 2004. He was also chairman of the Amateur Status Committee from 2007 to 2011, helping produced the first united Amateur Status code with the USGA in 2012.

The post The Royal and Ancient Golf Club is doing this for only the second time in 266 years appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.