Encouraged by adventurous golfers, creative greens chairmen are now scheduling their own takes on reverse or cross-country golf days at their properties, a practice that dates back to The Old Course at St Andrews. “It’s astounding how different the terrain looks when you are coming down the fairway from the other side,” said golfer Mike Mosely at Crestwood Golf Club in Marcy, N.Y. “It’s like a whole other golf course.”

Whether it’s playing the golf course in reverse, or playing cross-country by hop-scotching across fairways to faraway greens, golfers are delighting in hacking the traditional routing and playing a version of the game more akin to the days of golf’s infancy: just pick a target and go, and try not to get stuck in what’s in between, reported Golf News Net.

Most golf fans know that the Old Course at St. Andrews was originally 22 holes, but many might be surprised to learn that the course was, for many years, played in the opposite direction, clockwise, instead of counter-clockwise as it is today. As a throwback to those days, once a year, usually in April, guests can play the “Reverse Old Course,” and many make the trek from around the world to do it, Golf News Net reported.

“It is in large part due to its simplicity and linearity that in can be played both ways,” wrote Jeremy Glenn of GolfClubAtlas.com. “As is well known, most greens serve a double function, with two flags being each approached from opposite directions. Furthermore, the vast treeless landscape along the coastline, combined with the close proximity of tees and greens, allows the golf course to be seen as one core entity, rather than eighteen separate components.”

What makes the reverse routing so brilliant is that the playing corridors are similar, but the hazards are traversed and greens approached from markedly different angles. The Reverse Old Course works as its own stand-alone design—a contiguous whole from 1-18, with strategic challenges as strong as the regular routing, Golf News Net reported.

Similarly, the concept of cross-country golf is also a throwback to formative years of the game, Golf News Net reported.

via “Throwback” Golf Variations Gain Popularity – Club & Resort Business.