Playing the Old Course at St Andrews 1.3

Publish date: 10/01/2024

Post 1.3 - How You Can Actually Play the Old Course

Starter's Box, Putting Green and 1st Tee Box

Next up for your reading pleasure about St Andrews is…..how do I get to play the Old Course? Please understand at this point, if you decide to join this very special group, there is a price to be paid.  No, I’m not talking about money, but rather sacrifice and risks.

The first sacrifice is GET IN SHAPE!!!  I can’t emphasis enough how important this is.  If you are coming from the United States, you are accustomed to playing your Saturday round by only walking from the golf cart to the tee box and back to the cart.  Unless you are missing a leg or have a letter from your doctor explaining your disability and how you are unable to walk, you will play The Old Course WALKING. 

Since most of you have not walked a golf course in years, you have no idea what’s involved.  IT’S A SIX MILE WALK FOLKS!!!!!!  Thankfully you can rent a pull cart (for about $5.00) or hire a caddy (more later on this) to carry your clubs. But it’s still a 6-mile WALK!! When is the last time any of you have walked 6 miles?  Trust me, It’s not easy.  To get into shape, my wife and I started a month ahead of our trip and walked 3 miles every day.  While 3 miles is not 6 miles, if you are doing it in the June heat in Florida, it will prepare you.  As of this writing and our golf trip, I am 75 years old and I did it.  So, can you!

If you are not willing to prepare yourself to walk your golf rounds in St Andrews, don’t waste your money making this trip. Otherwise, you will shoot a terrible round on the Old Course, be totally exhausted after your round and none of your golf will be enjoyable. 

In addition, if you are playing with any locals, they will walk away and leave you.  By the time most Americans have lasered the distance to the green and decided which club to hit, a St Andrews member will have hit their ball and be halfway to the green.  Golf on the Old Course is a “ready golf” game and you are expected to keep up and walk/play your round. all within 4 hours.

The additional sacrifice to getting in shape is the time, money and planning you will do to make this happen.  You don’t just call ahead or show up and say book me a tee time for tomorrow.  Before planning your trip, go to the St Andrews Links web site and look up the Busy Dates for the Old Course. The Old Course has special events/tournaments called Busy Dates.  Do not plan your trip for any of these busy dates as the Old Course is closed for public play on those dates.  In addition to the busy dates, the Old Course is closed for all play every Sunday.  On Sunday, it becomes a public park for the town.

Gone are the days when if you didn’t have a tee time, you could show up at midnight, get in line and hope the Starter would somehow weave you into a spot during the day.  If you are a single player, you must now register at the Starter’s Pavilion or the Links Clubhouse between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm on the day before you wish to play and sign up for the Singles Daily Draw.

All winners for the singles draw will be pulled that night and the draw list is posted the next morning.  Your name will be on the list in the order it was pulled.  The sixth name pulled will be number 6 on the list and you will be the 6th player given an open spot that day.  The Starter can estimate your tee time for you, or tell you if it is unlikely that you will be given a spot.  An open spot means either a 2-some or 3-some was pulled in the Ballot for a tee time and there is an open spot in their group.  The good news is there is an open spot.  The bad news is the group can accept or decline you joining their group.

If you have 2, 3 or 4 players in your group, your only option for a tee time is to enter The Ballot. Yes, there are Tour Operators who pay lots of money to St Andrews Links for blocks of tee times.  But those tee times will cost you about $10,000 per person for one round on the Old Course, a couple of rounds on other courses and maybe a couple of nights hotel room.  Not what I call budget friendly.

Even members are required to enter The Ballot for a tee time.  I played with three St Andrews Links Ticketholders (members) and we too were required to enter The Ballot.  The winners of The Ballot tee times will be posted on the St Andrews web site at 5:00 pm, two days before your tee time.  This gives you plenty of time to either plan your Old Course round or register for a round on one of the other courses (you should find plenty of options for the other courses). We were very fortunate to have our names pulled for the very last tee time (5:10 pm) of the day.

A few more tee times are pulled and posted and those are called Dark Time, meaning at some point during your round it will be too dark to play and you won’t finish the round.  Apparently, they do a very good job of figuring out exactly when it’s too dark to play. 

Jumping back to the number of players in your travel group, your best option for a great golf trip is to visit St Andrews with 2 or more players.  I would also suggest that you plan to stay and play 3 or 4 days. Logic being, with 2 or more players and at least 3 days for golf, you can enter the daily Ballot for all 3 days.  With 3 days to have your name drawn, you will most likely get picked at least one day.  You also could have your name selected for all 3 days.  Wouldn’t that be a nice problem to have…..hmmm, do I want to play the Old Course 3 times, or perhaps another course?

Many visiting groups use this strategy to get on the Old Course.  St Andrews Links understands this and if you want to cancel one of your Old Course tee times and swap it for one on another of their courses, they are most understanding to do it.  I hear the Castle Course is great or you may want to play the St Andrews New Course.  The New Course runs parallel to the Old Course and is only 129 years old, so New does not mean Augusta National.

Assuming you have somehow managed to secure a tee time on the Old Course, here’s what happens next and what’s it going to cost you? As I mentioned before, St Andrews offers three seasons at 3 different price points.  When we were there in July, green fee pricing was posted as:

1.    High Season        – Mid April to Mid-October Green Fee> 320 Pounds (apx. $425)

2.    Shoulder Season – Mid October to October 31st Green Fee> 225 Pounds (apx. $300)

- April 1 to Mid-April Green Fee> 225 Pounds (apx. $300)

3.    Low Season            – November 1 to March 31 Green Fee> 160 Pounds (apx. $210)

As previously indicated, it’s not cheap and it ain’t negotiable.  Take it or leave it.

I promised to cover rental clubs at some point, so here’s my advice.  Don’t try and rent your clubs from St Andrews Links.  Yes, they offer them and will reserve a set of clubs for you, but only if you have a tee time booking reference number, which you likely won’t have.

I reserved my rental clubs at Auchterlonies of St Andrews (see photo) for $60 and found them to be a pleasure to work with.  Go to their web site (www.auchterloniesofstandrews.com) and send them an email asking to reserve clubs.  They will email you a form to complete with your name, M/F, L/R, S/R/Sr/L clubs, etc.  You will pay the rental fee when you pick up the clubs.  Auchterlonies had me a brand-new set of Taylor Made clubs ready and waiting when I arrived there.  They are located one block from the Greyfriars Inn and I highly recommend their services. Auchterlonies even allowed me to return the clubs the next morning.

Auchterlonies of St Andrews

If you are a US golfer, you will arrive at least an hour ahead of your tee time expecting to hit a few balls and warm up.  WRONG!!!  There is no driving range at St Andrews.  The first ball you hit will likely be your tee shot on the # 1 tee box. There is the St Andrews Academy which is a teaching facility and where you can hit balls behind the Old Course Hotel.  It’s about a 2 mile walk if you want to make the day’s walk ten miles instead of six.  Most folks don’t make the Academy walk and just go to the tee box.  There is a small putting green beside the first tee box. (see prior photo)

You will need to check in at the Starter’s Box (see prior photo) about 30 minutes prior to your round and pay him your green fee (all credit cards accepted).  After you pay your fee, the Starter will present you with a lovely canvas zippered bag with St Andrews Old Course stitched on the side.  Inside you will find a couple of scorecards, an invaluable yardage book, some tees and a pencil.  This bag will make for a treasured memory and a great show off with the guys back home (see photo).

St Andrews Old Course Bag

Before you start booking flights into Edinburgh, allow me to summarize the hurdles you will face and why getting to play the Old Course is so special.  Once you have done all your Proper Planning and all is right with the world, you will still face 4 major risks that you won’t get to play the Old Course.  And they are:

1.    You could always face some type of personal emergency that prevents you from traveling, which is an excellent reason to purchase travel insurance.🚑

2.    As I shared with you, any number of travel issues may prevent you from getting to St Andrews, such as flight delays/cancellations, railroad strikes, etc.✈

3.    You have no guarantee that your name will be drawn in the Ballot/Singles Draw for an Old Course tee time.☹

4.    And finally, once you are there and your tee time has been awarded, St Andrews has some of the most fickle weather on the planet.  The morning could be 60 degrees, full sunshine and beautiful, while your afternoon tee time may face 45 degrees, raining cats & dogs and a 25-mph wind.🌡🌧⚡

Still want to give it a go?  Thousands of people do it every year and for those of us who have played the Old Course, we know why it’s so special.  You are automatically a member of The Club Who Has Played the Old Course.  Nothing can ever take that away. Even if you posted a 110 score for your round, you frame that scorecard and speak of it as if you had made a hole in one at Augusta.  Only you will ever know the sacrifice, proper planning and risks you took to post that 110 score. Be damn proud of it!

So, at this point since this blog is supposed to be about Budget Golf Trips, I thought perhaps we should sum up the possible investment for a round of golf on the Old Course:

·       $591.00 > my two nights hotel

·       $  60.00 >rental clubs

·       $    5.00 >pull cart

·       $425.00 >green fee

o   $1,081.00 estimated cost w/o caddy

·       $135.00 > estm. cost to hire a caddy (no pull cart needed)

o   $1,211.00 = estimated cost for a round with caddy

In my first post, I suggested that you could possibly play a round of golf on the Old Course for about $1,000 plus travel expenses.  if you only stay one night in St Andrews and pay for one night’s hotel, that drops the estimated cost with caddy to $916.00.  Looks like I hit the mark!

Obviously, these numbers don’t include what you will spend in travel cost to and from St Andrews, plus food & booze and all the trinkets, shirts & caps you will want to buy.

At this point, I will remind you of my 3rd sentence in my first post which was…. “there is no way to travel, stay and play this course cheaply.”  Playing the Old Course is special.  If it was easy everybody would do it!

However, my round was made easier thanks to my playing partners, Rich, Yehia and Andy who not only facilitated getting my Old Course tee time but also invited Katherine and me to join them for lunch prior to our round at their Private Members Only - St Andrews Golf Club.

Rich was even kind enough to give Katherine and me a guided tour of the St Andrews Club making sure we noted it's 175 year heritage and anniversary photo. (see below)

Me leaving The St Andrews Golf Club headed for our round. Little did I know what awaits me.

For my final posting on St Andrews, I will share highlights of my round on the Old Course.  Stay tuned for the adventure of a lifetime and please share my blog information with your golfing friends who may be planning any golf trip. Post 4 coming in about a week.