How to Play St Andrews Old Course: The Ballot and the Singles Draw

The short answer

You play the Old Course one of three ways. The simplest and cheapest is the daily ballot, a public lottery run by the St Andrews Links Trust: enter a group of two to four by 2pm two days before you want to play, and the result is published around 4pm that afternoon. If your name comes out, you have a tee time the day after next. The second route is an advance reservation, released roughly a year ahead and snapped up almost at once, which lets you fix a guaranteed date well in advance. The third is a guaranteed tee time bundled into a stay and play package through an authorised operator, which costs more but removes the gamble. Solo travellers cannot enter the group ballot and instead use the separate singles draw.

The indicative 2026 high season green fee is 355 pounds per round from the 21st of April to the 18th of October, with cheaper winter rates. Add a caddie at roughly 75 to 80 pounds per bag, which on a course this layered with blind lines and double greens is worth every penny on a first visit. One firm rule shapes any trip: the Old Course is closed on Sundays. Always confirm current fees and ballot arrangements directly before booking.

How to book, step by step

Decide first how much certainty you need. If you can be flexible with dates and are travelling as a group of two, three or four, plan around the ballot. Stay in St Andrews for several nights and enter every day you are in town, because the more days you can throw at it, the better your odds. Enter by 2pm two days ahead, check the result around 4pm, and have a strong second course such as the New, the Jubilee or nearby Kingsbarns and Carnoustie booked as confirmed rounds so the week is never wasted if the ballot does not fall your way. Carry a handicap certificate, since the Old Course is the one St Andrews layout that requires it, with a limit of 36 for men and women.

If you need a fixed date, do not rely on the ballot at all. Either secure an advance reservation the moment the window opens, roughly a year out, or book a guaranteed tee time through an authorised stay and play operator, which folds the round into accommodation and removes the uncertainty for a premium. Solo golfers follow a different path entirely: you cannot enter the group ballot, so apply to the singles draw in person the day before you wish to play, then expect to be paired into a group. Whichever route you choose, remember that no golf is played on a Sunday, so never pencil the Old Course in for the last day of a Saturday to Saturday trip.

When to go, and playing the course

The Fife season runs roughly April to October, with the firmest, fastest turf and the longest light through high summer, which is also the busiest and dearest window and the hardest ballot to win. The April and October shoulders trade a little weather risk for marginally better odds and lower rates. Whenever you come, give the course the respect its history demands. Play to the vast double greens, seven of which serve fourteen holes, by aiming well away from the flag and reading the borrows long. Take a caddie to find the blind lines off the tee and to keep you out of the gathering bunkers, the deepest of which, Hell on the long 14th and the Road bunker at the 17th, can wreck a card in a single swing. Walk the closing two holes with your head up: the Road Hole 17th, played over the corner of the hotel and defended by that infamous bunker and the road itself, is the most famous par 4 in golf, and the 18th over the Swilcan Bridge and the Valley of Sin is the walk every golfer dreams of.