Teeing Off in the Birthplace of Golf, in St. Andrews, Scotland

Don’t get me wrong — Alexandrina Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 to 1901, was quite the monarch, wielding the scepter influentially while the British Empire expanded hungrily around the globe.For 63 years she rocked the crown hard, all while managing to elude eight — eight! — assassination attempts.What she didn’t do is play golf.Which has me wondering, as I stand on the first tee of the Jubilee Course in St.

Andrews, Scotland, if it’s fair that this beautiful, intricate links was named in honor of the famously prim and proper queen’s Diamond Jubilee, her 60th year on the throne, when it opened in 1897.These thoughts are dancing in my mind as I take my first swing of the day, bunting a drive down the first fairway of the Jubilee links, and that, really, is the point: You can’t play the older courses of St.Andrews and not feel history swirling almost palpably around you....