Bob Martin/SI

The 18th hole at St. Andrews provides some of the most striking views in all of golf.

Every week of the 2010 PGA Tour season, the editorial staff of the SI Golf Group will conduct an e-mail roundtable. Check in on Mondays for the unfiltered opinions of our writers and editors and join the conversation in the comments section below.

THE FIRST COURSE
Gary Van Sickle, senior writer, Sports Illustrated: Is the Old Course at St. Andrews the coolest course ever or, as Scott Hoch once suggested, is it simply the "worst piece of mess"?

Alan Shipnuck, senior writer, Sports Illustrated: Well, it's certainly quirky. You either love it or hate it. I've played it four or five times and like it more and more. If you're a pro who's used to plodding around a soft American-style course, I can see where the Old Course would drive you crazy.

John Garrity, contributing writer, Sports Illustrated: It's hardly the greatest course ever, but I think it might be the greatest venue. You're playing a major championship on the oldest course in the world, and it doubles as the town green for a medieval city. That's an unbeatable combination.

Michael Bamberger, senior writer, Sports Illustrated: I just came from a Tiger Woods press conference during which he said it's his favorite course in the world. Therefore it must be true. Tiger said he loved the Old Course the first time he played it, which is unusual. I think any of us would get swept up in playing it the first time, though.

Anonymous Pro: Tiger should love it — the Old Course is a true ball striker's course. It's not like Royal St. George's, next year's site, where a donkey in a polo shirt has a better chance of hitting a fairway than a top 10 golfer. At the Old Course you have to avoid the bunkers. You don't scrape it around there and post four good scores. The Old Course identifies major champions better than any other course in the world.

Damon Hack, senior writer, Sports Illustrated: St. Andrews is the reason I'm a golf writer. In 2000 I was covering the NBA and went to St. Andrews to watch history after Tiger won [the U.S. Open] at Pebble. It was a given that he was going to win at St. Andrews. I stayed in a university dorm, brought my clubs, walked around and soaked the whole thing in. It's the history of the place. It's Rusack's and the Dunvegan and the who's-who roster of Open champions. There's simply a vibe to the place. It's the home of golf.

Anonymous Pro: St. Andrews is fantastic. I'm glad they started putting the Open there every five years. Every third year would be even better.

Bamberger: I agree with all of that. Unlike Pebble, the Old Course is really 18 distinctive moments. It proves that nature can do more as an architect than Tom Fazio ever can.

Shipnuck: The town's setting is magical, with the beach framing the course. You can walk from the course to a pub on a winding street. Everything about the experience is great.

Hack: It's one of the handful of places you say you made a pilgrimage to. I went as a fan. I remember the flight, the train ride, the people I met. I walked a few holes with Dennis Paulson's mom. I remember some people from Minnesota rooting on Tom Lehman. It was a magical experience.

Shipnuck: Just to clarify, Damon: Did you spend your own money to go?

Hack: I did. I kept a journal of my experience that week. Patrick Ewing was about to be traded to the SuperSonics, and after getting my butt kicked on that story by Mike Lupica and some other reporters, I needed a vacation.

THE HOLE TRUTH
Van Sickle: What about the individual holes at the Old Course? Do you have a favorite? Nobody ever talks about the 1st hole, other than Ian Baker-Finch's infamous out-of-bounds play. The 1st is underrated. I've seen pros and tourists alike block it out of play on the right due to 1st-tee jitters.

Shipnuck: The ball runs so far, and you're so jacked up to be there, you can actually drive it too far and into the burn. I did that once.

Van Sickle: Also, you're probably still seeing spots from the flash camera after the mandatory photo op on the tee, which sits in front of the clubhouse.

Bamberger: At our level you can hit your first shot, your second shot and even your third into the burn. A lot of things can go wrong there. Unlike some other celebrated courses, doing so is not a day ruiner.

Shipnuck: No one likes to see the course tinkered with, but I think the changes they made at the 17th, adding 35 yards to the Road Hole, will put a little fear back in that hole. Padraig Harrington said that the hole had turned into a five-wood, eight-iron play. The hole was hard when it was driver, five-iron to a tiny target with nowhere to miss. When players started hitting nine-irons and wedges into the green, it took that fearsome bunker somewhat out of play.

Van Sickle: The 60- and 64-degree wedge took out some of the fear of that greenside bunker too.

Shipnuck: Didn't David Duval have an episode in there? [At the 2005 Open, Duval dropped from contention after taking four shots to escape the Road Hole Bunker.]

Van Sickle: That's not to say you can't still find yourself in jail there.

Hack: If they hadn't lengthened the hole, no one would hit into that bunker. At least now it should be more in play.

Van Sickle: At the 1989 Dunhill Cup pro-am, my pro was a total unknown from Argentina, Eduardo Romero. He was playing the Old Course for the first time and shot an easy 66 because he listened to his caddie. Romero was actually on the road at the Road Hole behind the green, and his caddie told him to use his putter. Romero holed it, one of the most amazing shots I've ever seen.

Anonymous Pro: I don't want to sound negative, but I agree with what Rich Beem said in '05: There are 17 great holes at the Old Course, and the Road Hole. That hole is too quirky. Does making the hole longer really make it better? I don't think so. But if you want to see some 8s and 9s, it's the place to go.

Shipnuck: There are some great holes. The par-5 14th is fantastic. The drive on 18 is one of golf's coolest shots. It's not difficult, you just rip it, but you have the old buildings, the road, the R&A clubhouse and usually a hundred stray people standing around in the background on any given day.

Bamberger: I'll see your tee shot on 18 and raise you the approach shot on 18. On that shot you have to flirt with the Valley of Sin. And we all know what Costantino Rocca did there in 1995. And Nicklaus. And Doug Sanders. I think that shot is one of the most magical moments in golf.

Anonymous Pro: Absolutely, the 18th is pretty cool. On top of all that, you can drive the green. You don't see many guys really screw up on the 18th, other than Sanders missing that short putt. It's not the hole itself, it's the theater that surrounds the 18th that makes it cool.

Hack: My favorite hole is the 11th, the par-3. It gives the players fits. Monty [Colin Montgomerie] made bogey there every day in the '05 Open. I watched David Sutherland play it, which I remember because he had Sacramento Kings headcovers.

Bamberger: I remember Bob Jones struggling with that hole.

Garrity: I just talked to him. He said to say hello.

Shipnuck: The 11th is my least favorite hole in golf. It's impossible. It's always straight downwind and the green is so small your shot always goes over the back. I guess I don't put enough Tour sauce on my ball. That hole killed me.

Garrity: That's exactly what Jones said.

Shipnuck: That hole is a lot better coming from the other direction because you can skirt around it and use the green contours to your advantage. I learned that when I played the Old Course in reverse, one of the coolest stories I ever did.

Bamberger: Do they still play that backward round?

Shipnuck: Every year on April 1. I'm not joking, it's an even better course backward.

Bamberger: Time and technology have not ruined this course. It is true genius even after several hundred years.