It's now 2014 and the scaffolding has gone and so has the name Hamilton Hall. It's now the Hamilton Grand and it has a well-scrubbed look about it. A lighter shade of red and I was pleased to read that ‘Ham's Hole’ an intimate bar and grill is open to the public. However I have my doubts that it will replace the Jigger Inn or the Dunvegan as the pub of choice by golfers.
The Jigger Inn is adjacent to the famous ‘Road Hole’ and is now part of the Old Course Hotel complex. And the relatively new owners say that the Jigger Inn is, "Fondly referred to as the town's best 19th hole"
My very dear friend Ken, a born and bred St Andrean has had a drink at the Jigger Inn and more than a few at the Dunvegan.
Ken went to school with the late and famous St Andrews golf caddie, ‘Tip’ Anderson who caddied for Arnold Palmer at the 1960 Open Championship at St Andrews. And Ken tells the story of how on one of his trips back home to the Auld Grey Toon he popped into the Cross Keys bar and there was ‘Tip’ who never forgot a face.
“Kennie Burns how are ye?” said ‘Tip’ who hadn't seen his old school mate for over 20 years.
The Cross Keys' bar was one of Tip's favourite watering holes and by all accounts is still highly thought of by St Andreans and visitors alike.
In his youth Ken would drink at the Crown but it's now gone. As to why the Jigger Inn wasn't his regular pub, there's no explanation except that while walking through St Andrews there's so many good pubs. There was no need to walk all the way out to the Jigger.
It was built around 1850 as the Station Master's house in the days when steam engines brought visitors to St Andrews and while viewing the Jigger's photographs of steam trains passing by the Old Course I recalled Sam Snead's remark made while looking out from his railway carriage window, “It did not look to me like it had ever had a machine on it.”