Gold sovereign honour for Leven caddie Ed Rankine

A traditional part of the ceremony is a race amongst caddies once the ball has been hit to find it and return it.

The new captain then buys his golf ball back from the caddie who retrieves it and returns it with a gold sovereign.

Rankine was amongst those waiting to get his hands on the ball and revealed that he managed to use some inside knowledge to get the ball back to new captain, Peter Forster.

“It feels super to have returned the ball," said Rankine, who has been a caddie in St Andrews since 2019.

"I actually caddied for Peter during the Calcutta Cup event so everyone was asking me ‘where do you think his drive’s going to go?’ and I said ‘well, I’m going to stand short left of the fairway’ and that’s how it turned out in the end.”

As captain of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, Forster will serve in an ambassadorial role for The R&A to support its work in developing golf around the world and will attend R&A professional and amateur championships, including the 150th Open at St Andrews next July.

Forster became a member of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club in 1972.

He was elected to the club committee from 1999 to 2003 and became its chairman from 2001 to 2003.

He was appointed as a trustee of St Andrews Links Trust from 2004 to 2013 and served as its chairman from 2009 to 2013.