How to get on the Old Course at St Andrews

The possibility of treading the same turf as your heroes and playing at St Andrews is very real. And contrary to popular belief, booking the Old Course is much easier to do than you might think. There are a number of different ways getting a tee time at the Home of Golf…

Booking the Old Course: In advance

The first and most common method golfers use is to book in advance through St Andrews. This method offers a guaranteed tee time for a full fourball, but can mean at times a 12-month-plus wait to play.

Availability is also very limited and tee times are non-refundable, so booking through this method does entail some risk.

Larger groups can apply for a small number of private advance tee time categories however, which are then awarded following the drawing of a ballot.

Alternatively, big or small groups sized from two to 16 can buy a St Andrews Winter Package ensuring a guaranteed round on the Old Course.

If you don’t want to book through St Andrews, a select number of tee times are available through Golfbreaks, with a package deal included.

Booking the Old Course: Last minute

If you’ve been unable or unwilling to book in advance, you can still try your luck in the Old Course ballot. Drawn two days prior to any day of play, a significant number of tee times are reserved for the ballot, often enabling St Andrews to fill the entire day with fourball tee times.

If unsuccessful in any these above pursuits however, there remains one final way to get on the most fabled course in golf: ‘the queue‘.

The informal queue, that often starts late the night before any given day of play, enables single golfers to take up any final remaining spots on the tee sheet.

Usually 15 or so spots are available for queueing golfers, offering significant possibilities to those willing to wait.

In many ways the queue is the easiest way to get on the Old, and requires just a few hours of dedication as opposed to months of waiting or crossing fingers and toes.